BANGOR, Maine — Col. Doug Farnham, commander of the Maine Air National Guard 101st Air Refueling Wing, said that when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor 74 years ago, it unified the country in a way not seen before. He added that with recent attacks on American soil, the county needs to unite once again.
“That attack killed over 2,400 Americans and led our nation into World War II,” Farnham said on Monday of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.
Farnham spoke while standing with veterans from every war since World War II, and with current military personnel flanking the podium, during an event at the pedestrian bridge at Kenduskeag Plaza for Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
“Of course, we remember the dead and the wounded, but also the courageous survivors who not only survived but fought that day and for the next three and a half years to secure unconditional victory,” he said. “We also remember our history in order to reinforce our resolve that our national strength, vigilance and unified determination is required to keep America the land of the free and defend against aggressors.”
The legend of the Greatest Generation began at Pearl Harbor, he added, and the soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines who followed in their footsteps “stood on their shoulders.”
Farnham was one of several local dignitaries who gathered for the Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day event.
World War II veteran Paul Wilbur, 90, of Hermon wore his red U.S. Marines jacket and veterans hat at the gathering. He said he was 16 when he heard on the radio that the Japanese had attacked the Hawaiian port.
“I turned 17 in January of 1942, and I left high school, with my parents’ permission, and enlisted on Feb. 12, 1942,” Wilbur recalled. “I was very patriotic. My father was a World War I veteran, and I wanted to do whatever I could to win this war. Both of us had to convince my mother.”
Wilbur served four years in the Pacific, but he never went to Pearl Harbor. He said war “is hard to describe,” but it’s a choice he would make again, if given the opportunity.
“War is a terrible thing. It really is,” he said while standing in the middle of the bridge, in between exchanges of “Semper Fi” greetings from fellow Marines and others in uniform. “I’m scared of the next one.”
Farnham said there are correlations between 9/11, Pearl Harbor and the recent terrorist attack in California, all of which were unprovoked attacks that resulted in innocent lives lost. He said there is no way of knowing “what will be our next Pearl Harbor,” but he added he is sure that the soldiers of today will be ready.
“They really are the next Greatest Generation,” Farnham said, repeating the words of former adjutant general of the Maine National Guard, retired Maj. Gen. John “Bill” Libby.
Samuel Cannon, Hampden Veterans of Foreign Wars commander — who took over this year for longtime organizer, World War II veteran Paul Colburn — said the country should never forget its history.
“We still have surviving World War II veterans, and we need to honor them,” Cannon said.
Japanese aircraft were able to fly nearly undetected to the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where they bombed and torpedoed the Navy fleet docked there. Twenty-one ships were sunk or badly damaged, 350 aircraft destroyed or damaged, and 3,500 people killed or wounded, according to a history from the U.S. Navy.
Willard C. Orr, a 1939 Bangor High School graduate, was the only Bangor resident to die at Pearl Harbor in the Japanese attack. His name is listed on the first page of the World War II Book of Honor at Bangor Public Library, and a plaque is mounted on the bridge where each year wreaths are released to flow down Kenduskeag Stream. He was working as head cook at Hickam Field when the first bombs were dropped on the Pacific island that Sunday in December.
This year, Bangor High School’s Junior ROTC conducted a 21-gun salute, the school’s band played the “Star Spangled Banner” and other music, and Hal Wheeler performed taps on his bugle, as he has done for years.
Colburn, a Bangor native who has organized the annual gathering for the last four decades, said he was pleased with the turnout at Monday’s gathering.
“I guess I’m officially retired now,” he said.
Cannon said next year’s gathering, the 75th anniversary, may include a parade and flyover.
Farnham ended his time at the podium with “a less familiar quote” from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “infamy” speech that he said is equally applicable today.
“‘With confidence in our armed forces, with unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph,’” Farnham said, reading the former president’s historic words. “‘So help us God.’”