Gold banded garrison caps dotted the audience and filled the podium at the UA’s Gallagher Theater yesterday morning as the Fleet Reserve Association’s Green Valley Branch 77 hosted the 55th USS Arizona Memorial.
Sixty-seven years ago Japanese Naval pilots bombed the U.S. Naval Base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 1177 officers and men aboard the USS Arizona. The battleship sank into the bay, entombing hundreds.
“”The people of Arizona can keep the spirit of the USS Arizona alive through recognition of eleven hundred sailors and marines who rest with their ship,”” said Harry Lyons, the Fleet Reserve Association’s past regional president southwest and master of ceremonies, as he read an address from Arizona governor, Janet Napolitano.
Community members and veterans filled the Gallagher Theater as poems and music were shared and bells were rung for those eight Arizona men entombed, taking on the ceremonial setting of Naval tradition.
“”(This is) a memorial for Pearl Harbor and it’s also a celebration of those men and women who served so valiantly for this nation,”” said Brigadier General Richard Gregg Maxon, Army and Navy veteran and guest speaker.
Maxon shared his experience in the Army National Guard, describing how every December his officer candidates would do training in Hawaii to study Pearl Harbor and partake in a ceremony at the USS Arizona memorial.
“”It’s an amazing thing. If you have young men and women who are wanting to be officers in the military, and they don’t fully understand the traditions and why they do what they do, you just take them there,”” said Maxon. “”Because when (they’re) on the ground (at the memorial)… it’s an amazing, moving event for these young men and women. Then they understand what their role is and the sacrifice that we may ask them to make.””
Maxon said the Arizona is still serving today, “”The sailors and marines, they are still serving our nation today as we continue that tradition in honoring those that were the first to fight in Pearl Harbor,”” he said. “”(Those veterans) were the first to fight Nazism, Imperialism, and they were literally the first to fight the Cold War.””
Joel M. Greenberg, Navy veteran and president of the Fleet Reserve Association said, “”It’s past the part where you want to be sad. But you want to remember the sacrifice. We here are memorializing and remembering the USS Arizona.””
“”This is the (Student Union) Memorial Center,”” said Greenberg as he pointed to the walls of the Gallagher Theater.
He pointed out that following World War II, the Navy donated a significant amount of USS Arizona memorabilia to the UA, including the bell from the battleship, which now sits in the university bell tower.
“”Every year the ceremony has been in or near this building. This is the Memorial Center, (the UA) has all that memorabilia and that bell. To a sailor, you have not idea the importance of a bell.””
The ceremony came to a close as the Sahuarita High School band played a medley of U.S. service anthems and a final rendition of Taps. The words, “”Go Navy,”” ended the ceremony in true Naval tradition.
