NEWBURGH – The “Day that Will Live in Infamy” was remembered by a large crowd of mostly veterans, Gold Star Mothers, and several students, in an outdoor ceremony on the banks of the Hudson River in Newburgh. It was 75 years ago on December 7, 1941 that Imperial Japan attacked the U.S. Navy installations at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and simultaneously attacked several other targets in China, the Pacific and Southeast Asia.
World War II in the Pacific had begun.
Over 100 attended the Newburgh ceremony
Keynote Speaker was Vietnam veteran David McTamaney, quartermaster of
VFW Post 973 in Newburgh. He wanted a local focus in his message.
“And as I was able to narrow that focus to individuals from our own county, who died, I could better understand who they were and what they did for me.”
McTamaney
Sherman
McTamaney said one local name stood out. Robert Sherman grew up in Middletown and while stationed in Hawaii, sent back poetry for a local newspaper column called “Tanks, Tents and Turrets.” His last letter arrived on December 6, 1941.
McTamaney read one of Sherman’s poems, then encouraged more than 100 attending the ceremony to think of someone they know, or their parents knew.
“So when I think of the guys who died at Pearl Harbor 75 years ago today, I think of just this one man, and I think of his widowed mom and his sacrifice becomes a lot more real for me. So I hope you can do that, too. I hope you can find a name of a man or a woman. There’s 820 of them on the memorial up around the corner from here. Learn who that person was so you’ll know what he or she gave up for you.”
The 45-minute outdoor ceremony concluded with the traditional tossing of wreaths into the Hudson River.
