Ottawa VFW to host Dec. 7 Pearl Harbor ceremony

The pledge to “never forget” carries special weight in regard to military service and the memories of veterans’ fallen comrades, but it takes on added meaning for all when it refers to Pearl Harbor.

With an estimated 19 survivors of the Japanese unprovoked, premeditated and surprise attack Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, on American Naval and Air Forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, it has fallen to veterans organizations to remember those who sacrificed all on that fateful day.

And that’s a duty the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2470 in Ottawa takes seriously.

The post, located at 1501 La Salle St., will conduct a service, a ceremony and then host a breakfast in honor of all who died there, but especially three Ottawa men who perished in that attack: James McCarrens and Herman Koeppe, who were both aboard on the USS Arizona, and Robert Halterman, who was then serving on the USS Oklahoma.

“It’s the reason why we’re here,” VFW Post Commander Scott Heyob said. “We want to keep people remembering, it is why this is called the Halterman-Koeppe-McCarrens VFW, and tell the story of these guys who made the ultimate sacrifice on that day. It’s a tradition that we want to keep alive with an event of some kind every year.”

Heyob said that this year, the ceremony and prayers will begin at 9 a.m. with the public invited to join the membership for a special breakfast immediately following.

Many of the participants will later head over to Peru for the annual Pearl Harbor Day Remembrance Parade along Water Street, leading to the memorial wreath drop in the Illinois River near the South Shore Boat Club.

Heyob added the VFW has done several things in recent years to showcase those three men with a memorial wall as part of the building renovation and general upgrade of the facility.

But the remembrance being held each year is a fitting honor to their legacy.

The National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day was officially established by Act of Congress on Dec. 7, 1994. There is a memorial in the waters there above the place where the Arizona was sunk, taking with her many of the 2,403 service men who lost their lives that day.

“We’ve been told that the three Ottawa men still have family who come to the ceremony,” Heyob said, “but it’s probably been a few years. Still, it’s our duty to keep their memories alive for their service.”