2,403 Americans were killed on Dec. 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor

On Sunday, Dec. 7, our nation will memorialize the 84th anniversary of the horrific and shocking attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As a result ,the Imperial Japanese Navy and Air Force killed 2,403 Americans and more than 1,178 were injured. Records indicate 1,999 of the deceased were sailors. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt called it “a date which will live in infamy.” 

While there will be ceremonies at Pearl Harbor and across the nation commemorating National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, sadly they no longer take place annually in Bay Ridge on the American Veterans Memorial Pier.

For more than three decades, members of the Catholic War Veterans, the American Legion and VFW would host somber Remembrance Day proceedings on the local pier. It was the late World War II U.S. Navy veteran Howie Dunn and his Amity American Legion Post who began holding ceremonies there. Dunn also has been credited with having convinced local elected officials to request that the NYC Parks Dept. rename the former 69th Street pier as the American Veterans Memorial Pier.

In the meantime, the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier Museum at Pier 86, at the foot of West 46th Street in Manhattan, will have a wreath-laying toss from the ship at 11 a.m. If you purchase a ticket to the museum, you will be permitted to witness  the ceremony on the ship.

***

The distinguished  Cathedral Club of Brooklyn, which was founded  in the Brooklyn Catholic Diocese on March 1, 1900, held its annual memorial Mass at St. Anselm’s Church. Upon entering and exiting the church, white-robed members of the Knights of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem served as an honor guard for the procession of Bishop Robert Brennan, priests, deacon, altar servers and Cathedral Club officers and members.

In addition to Bishop Brennan, who serves as the club’s spiritual leader, the memorial service was co-celebrated by Father Kevin Abels, pastor of St. Anselm’s, Our Lady of Angels and nearby St. Andrew the Apostle parishes; Father Michael Falce, pastor of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church and the club chaplain, and Diocesan Vicar General Msgr. Joseph Grimaldi.