Pearl Harbor survivors to pay tribute to comrades Dec. 7

Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2001 | 8:26 a.m.

At a memorial service Friday for the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Andy Hoover, head of the local Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, will read the names of the 10 Nevada members who have died in the past year.

"It is a day I observe solemnly and thankfully -- thankful to God that they (the Japanese) missed me," said Hoover, a Navy veteran who on Friday afternoon will visit the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City to pay respects to comrades who have died in recent years.

"The real heroes are at the bottom of the harbor aboard the ships that sank."

Only about 90 known military veterans who served at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, still live in Nevada.

Former Sen. Richard Bryan will speak at the 10 a.m. service at Palm Mortuary's downtown chapel, 1325 N. Main St., site of the local Pearl Harbor shrine, Roy Heath, past president of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10047, said.

"We are happy to have the senator address our gathering because he played a major role in getting the Pearl Harbor monument at Palm," said Heath, who will serve as emcee.

This year's event will feature the Nellis Air Force Base Honor Guard, a musical selection by Palm vocalist Bill Wong and the Nellis S.H.A.R.E. home-school group that will do a recitation. Air Force Chaplain Maj. Michael Moore will deliver the invocation.

The tribute will move from the chapel to the outdoor monument, where a wreath will be placed on the shrine. Taps will be played and a 21-gun salute will be fired.

At 11:30 a.m. a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Luncheon will be served at the Nellis Air Force Base Enlisted Club. Gen. Ralph Eberhart, commander of the Air Force Space Command in Colorado, is the scheduled speaker.

Tickets are $10 per person. The Thunderbird Chapter of the Air Force Association is hosting the event.