The San Diego chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, possibly the last still operating in the U.S., held its final meeting last Saturday in a La Mesa, Calif., church, fatefully bowing to the relentless march of time, The San Diego Union-Tribune and Stripes.com reported.
The chapter, once as large as 586 survivors, now has seven remaining, according to the report.
The group will socialize when they can, and chapter President Stuart Hedley, a fixture at local veterans’ events for decades, will continue speaking at schools and appearing at public events.
However, their official business of monthly meetings, financial reports and officer elections has concluded.
“It’s certainly the end of an era,” said Hedley, who turns 98 next month, “and it leaves me a little heartbroken.”
Hedley said the chapter, which at its peak was believed to be the largest in the nation, can’t continue because it needs at least two survivors to serve on its board. After chapter Vice President Jack Evans, passed away at 95 in February, no others were mobile enough replace him, according to the report.
“There’s no way around it, we are a dying organization,” Hedley said.
Approximately 50,000 American servicemembers were on Oahu, Hawaii, the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese aircraft struck from aircraft carriers and decimated the Navy’s Pacific Fleet in a surprise attack that forced the U.S. into World War II.
The attacked killed 2,403 Americans and injured another 1,200, while more than 30 ships and hundreds of airplanes were destroyed or damaged.
The survivors, of whom no one knows how many remain, picked themselves up, helped win the war and continued their lives on the way to becoming “The Greatest Generation.”
The survivors put into practice a key part of the association’s motto: “Remember Pearl Harbor.” They gave talks to schoolchildren and on military bases, rode in Veterans Day parades and spoke at Memorial Day commemorations. They sent letters to congressional leaders, urging continued vigilance against foreign threats, according to the report.
All survivors are pushing the century mark, and Clayton Schenkelberg, the only other San Diego survivor able to attend the last chapter meeting, will be 102 next month, the report said.
Hedley and Schenkelberg were among approximately 100 people who gathered for the final meeting, scheduled to coincide with the chapter’s founding 56 Septembers ago, according to the report.
The meeting drew relatives, friends and admirers of the survivors, many of them in Hawaiian shirts or dresses and donning leis. Lunch was Hawaiian, and singers entertained with songs from the South Pacific, as well as patriotic numbers and a medley of 1940s hits, according to the report.
When lunch concluded, the chapter board held what Hedley called “its shortest meeting ever,” according to the report. He said a prayer, called roll and expressed regret that it had come to this.
Then he tapped a gavel on the table and said, “We are done.”
The San Diego Pearl Harbor Survivors chapter drew from a large pool of veterans because of the area’s long-standing ties to the Navy.
“I think we like to get together because Pearl Harbor was a one-of-a-kind experience,” the late Bob Ruffato once told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Unless you were there, it’s hard to understand what it was like.”
Photo credit: Howard Lipin/The San Diego Union-Tribune