Date/Time
Date(s) - December 7, 2022
12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
Categories
Southeastern North Carolina’s annual commemoration ceremony of the attack on Pearl
Harbor, Hawaii, which launched America into World War II, will be held on Wednesday,
December 7, at Wilmington’s Hannah Block Historic USO/Community Arts Center at
Second and Orange Streets.
Army Brigadier General Robert S. Cooley, Jr., the keynote speaker, recently retired following
33 years of service. His last position was chief of staff for the U.S. Army Reserve.
The event, sponsored by the World War II Wilmington Home Front Heritage Coalition, will
begin at 1:25 p.m., and is free and open to the public.
This is the actual local time the first wave of Japanese aircraft attacked Navy and Army air
force installations on Oahu, according to Coalition chairman Wilbur Jones. Except for the
Covid year of 2020, the Coalition has organized these commemorations since 2000.
General Cooley, a U.S. Military Academy graduate, is a serial entrepreneur and owner of
Wilmington’s award-winning Apple Annie’s Bake Shop and The Wine Sampler. His public
service includes chairman of the USS North Carolina Battleship Commission.
Mayor Bill Saffo will present remarks. Jones will show his PowerPoint presentation,
“Wilmington’s Connection to the Attack on Pearl Harbor: Hawaii and the Wilmington
Home Front, Dec. 7, 1941.” It remembers three Wilmington sailors who died in the attack
on the battleships USS Arizona and USS Oklahoma, and destroyer USS Shaw. Susan Savia
will sing the National Anthem.
For more information contact Jones at 910-793-6393, or joneswd@ec.rr.com.