Join local historian, Frank Stritter for a lecture on the heroes of Pearl Harbor, September 18th at 7 pm.
December 7, 1941 was, in President Franklin Roosevelt’s immortal words, “a day that will live in infamy.” He gave it that name because on that day the skies over the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, filled with the drone of more than 350 Japanese fighter planes and bombers. During a two-hour surprise attack, the Japanese strike force rained fire on the unprepared US Pacific fleet, damaging or destroying some 20 ships and 200 aircraft and inflicting 3,500 casualties. The attack thrust the United States into World War Two as Congress declared war on Japan the following day. Many heroes stepped forward on that fateful day. This presentation describes the contributions of ten individuals from battleship commanders to underwater welders to operating room nurses who were among the many who became heroes. It is a tribute to them.
Frank T. Stritter is a Professor Emeritus at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a US Army veteran and a member of American Legion Post 88.
This program is free and open to the public; call the library with questions at 315.655.9322.