As WWII veterans pass on, Pearl Harbor memories will fade

By John Boyle  Citizen-Times.com  December 7, 2009

It's inevitable. As the World War II generation continues to dwindle, remaining veterans know the date that lives in infamy will gradually fade from America's consciousness.

“In 10 years, it'll barely be remembered — it's certainly not as important now as it used to be,” said Craig Kirkpatrick Sr., a U.S. Navy sailor who was on the USS Castor in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese struck on Dec. 7, 1941. “You know how these historical things pass along.”

Kirkpatrick, 90, is one of about 2 million surviving World War II veterans, out of 16.1 million who served. He's not bitter about Pearl Harbor remembrances becoming less prominent, partly because he knows it's just human nature for memories to grow fainter as time rolls on.

“Even 9/11 is certainly not as prominent in people's minds as it was at first, and that's only been a few years ago,” Kirkpatrick said.

The attack 68 years ago today claimed 2,400 lives, sank 21 of the 96 U.S. Navy vessels in the harbor and left most of America's 394 planes on the Hawaiian island damaged or destroyed. It galvanized the United States like few other events ever have, spurring the largely isolationist county into World War II and firmly onto the world stage as a dominant power.

But veterans of that day are clear-eyed about Americans' long-term memories.

“Our generation started a lot of programs, dedications, monuments for Pearl Harbor,” said Leo Sienkiewicz, 90, president of the N.C. Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. “But the younger groups are just not interested. And it's not just Pearl Harbor survivors — the American Legion, the (Veterans of Foreign Wars), they're losing members left and right and have not got replacements.”

'A longer grasp'

Joe Alexander, a retired Marine Corps colonel who served two tours of duty in Vietnam and has appeared on the History Channel as a World War II expert, wrote the book “Storm Landings, Epic Amphibious Battles in the Central Pacific.” He acknowledges that Pearl Harbor remembrances are waning but stressed that the event still carries a historical wallop that few other episodes do.

“I think in terms of Pearl Harbor, it will have a longer grasp in our memory, even after the last survivors of that date pass on,” Alexander said. “It precipitated a war that like no other event will ever do. It was such a devastating attack, and it was a turning point for the whole war.”

The war set America on a course as a superpower, and it instilled a mindset of the necessity for preparedness, mainly because America had been caught so badly off-guard. It also exposed an entire generation of Americans to combat. Sailors watched massive battleships sink and saw their friends die.

“You had extraordinary heroes from that day — people who had never been exposed to these things before all of the sudden were in the middle of it,” Alexander said. “You want to remember the individuals who suffered through it.”

Kirkpatrick, a modest man who spent a career in the Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard before moving back home to the mountains in 1968, makes no case for his own heroism that day. The USS Castor, a supply ship, was carrying 2,000 tons of ammunition, and Kirkpatrick and most of his shipmates were eating breakfast when the attack began.

The ship's quartermaster alerted them to the attack, and Kirkpatrick headed toward the ship's stern to see what was happening in the harbor, where most of America's Pacific fleet was moored.

“I was going out on the exit facing the stern, and that's when I saw the plane with the red spots on the wings,” Kirkpatrick said, referring to a Japanese bomber. “I saw the pilot and the gunner pretty plain, and I decided that was the wrong place for me. I did an about-face and went up to my battle station, which was the steering gear room.”

An electrician, Kirkpatrick continued to man his station, but he did come up to survey the incredible damage in the harbor and at the nearby airbase. The memories from that day are seared into his mind.

Kirkpatrick's son, Craig Kirkpatrick Jr., is a member of the Pearl Harbor Day Commemorative Committee in Henderson County, which hosts an annual high school essay competition about Dec. 7, 1941. The group will host a gathering at 11 a.m. today at the Historic Henderson County Courthouse on Main Street at which winners will be announced — and the Day of Infamy remembered.

A retired Air Force veteran, Kirkpatrick Jr., 65, said the essay contest is one way the group can keep Dec. 7 in the public's consciousness, particularly with younger people. But he knows that Americans will eventually move on, although he doubts they'll ever completely forget Dec. 7, 1941.

He suspects that in 10 years or so, when the Department of Veterans Affairs estimates just 303,000 World War II veterans will remain alive, the date will be edging toward historical footnote territory. About 1,200 World War II veterans die every day, by some estimates.

“Other than the dry pages of history books, I can foresee the days of our country pausing to recognize Pearl Harbor passing away,” he said. “It will probably be put in as a footnote in calendars.”