Rockville Centre remembers the attack on Pearl Harbor

A few dozen veterans from Rockville Centre and neighboring communities gathered at Mill River Complex Park on Dec. 7 with local officials to remember the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

Seventy-six years ago to that day, in 1941, the surprise military strike by the Japanese Navy Air Service at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii led to the United States’ entry into World War II. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged and four sunk. A total of 2,403 Americans were killed, and 1,178 others were wounded in the attack.

Rockville Centre Mayor Francis X. Murray echoed the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had called it “a date that will live in infamy.”

“Americans reeled as our innocence and sense of security was ripped from us,” Murray said. “An enemy had come onto our land and attacked us as we slept. Our national innocence was lost forever…and even though we mourn, our nation rose up and fought back.”

He added that his father, Eugene Murray, 92, who served as the village’s mayor from 1987 to 2007, remembered listening to Roosevelt’s address on the radio at age 16, later joining the military with his five older brothers.

“This is also a day to remember and pay tribute to all those fighting today around the world in defense of our freedom,” Murray concluded. “We are forever in debt to all those brave Americans.”

Frank Colon, Jr., commander of American Legion Post 303, acknowledged World War II veteran Al Terrell, of Oceanside, in the audience, as well as Valley Stream resident Ron Sabo, whose father, John, was wounded during the attack.

Murray led the throwing of a wreath into the nearby body of water, a national tradition in remembrance of the attack. After, American Legion Post 303 member Joe Marciano, who served in the Army from 1975 to 1978, played Taps on the bugle. To close the ceremony, those in attendance softly sang “God Bless of America.”