Pearl Harbor remembered with ceremony

LA PORTE, TX -- To remember the thousands of sailors, marines, soldiers and civilians that died or survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the Texas Commandery of the Naval Order of the U.S. held its 29th annual commemoration ceremony on the deck of the Battleship USS Texas (BB-35) berthed at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site on Saturday (Dec. 6).

The keynote speaker was Tom Gillette. Mr. Gillette's father, Rear Admiral Claude Gillette, was manager of Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard responsible for fleet repairs in Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, Tom was in the sixth grade and the family lived a few hundred yards from Battleship Row directly in the path of the incoming Japanese attack on the shipyard. Fortunately, none of his family was injured during the attack. Tom served in the Navy from 1952 to 1955 as a ship repair officer.

In addition to Texas Commandery Companions, other ceremony participants were representatives from the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors who read the names of survivors who have passed in the last two years and assisted in throwing a lei into the water as a memorial to the survivors and those who lost their lives; the Naval Sea Cadets; Sea Scouts; Civil Air Patrol Cadets; the South East Texas Patriot Guard Riders; students of the National Social Studies Honor Society at Clear Falls High School; the Invincible Eagle Band of Liberty, Texas; a four-plane Commemorative Air Force flyby and a U.S. Marine Corps Honor Guard for a gun salute.

Read more from The Pearland Journal, a Houston Community Newspaper partner