On a bright sunlit morning, Veterans United in Arms paid tribute Wednesday to the 2,403 U.S. service members and civilians who lost their lives in Japan’s surprise attack Dec. 7, 1941 on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The ceremony at Buena Vista Burial Park in Brownsville was part of this year’s commemoration of Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and also paid tribute to all veterans. After the ceremony members placed U.S. flags at the graves of veterans buried there.
“We’re going to be honoring World War II veterans, today’s their day,” Tony Garcia, executive director of Veterans United in Arms, said at the outset. “They have been called the Greatest Generation and I really do believe that they were the Greatest Generation in the history of our country.”
“The mostly young Americans who died that day, along with those who served in uniform during World War II or on the home front war effort are collectively known as the Greatest Generation. Their sacrifices reflect the theme of this year’s Commemoration: Everlasting Legacy.
“The focus is the importance of remembering Pearl Harbor and how the Greatest Generation saved us from tyranny and brought us peace through reconciliation,” the National Parks Service website commemorating the attack states.
During the ceremony, Garcia noted that 97 Brownsville servicemen died during World War II. During the Korean War that followed, 54 Brownsville servicemen lost their lives. Then, during the Vietnam War, the U.S. lost 58,483 service members, including eight service women whose remains have never been recovered, he said.
Additional service members paid the ultimate price in subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and in service to the country elsewhere, Garcia noted, saying his organization hoped to have a commemorative service for them in the future.
Brownsville City Commissioner Roy De Los Santos spoke briefly, saying he was honored to participate in commemorating Pearl Harbor since both of his grandfathers were World War II veterans,
“Both have passed, but being able to carry on their memory and their legacy is very, very important to me,” De Los Santos said.
“We were then and we are today the greatest country on the face of the Earth, not just because of the founding principles but because of the men and women who emulate them every day,” he said.
Veterans United members then gave five readings reflecting on what it means to be a soldier and veteran and laying out what veterans’ service collectively means to the country.
“We are very proud to have worn the military uniform of the United States of America. We will never forget those that we lost. For the freedom that you enjoy today and every other day, they paid the ultimate price,” the first reading stated.
Those reading included Garcia, Bryan Eggers, Conrad Vera, Johnny Torres and Simone Rocha.
After a bell tolled 10 times for fallen soldiers, members of American Legion Post 43 gave a 21-gun salute to all veterans interred at the Buena Vista cemetery. Afterward, members shared pan dulce and set about posting flags and cleaning up around the cemetery.
Brownsville-based Veterans United in Arms was founded in the early 2010s. It has 40 members, including spouses and family members. The organization helps members, sometimes financially, and in completing paperwork for veterans benefits.
Among members are Bryan and Bridgette Eggers, who met in the U.S. Navy while stationed at Pearl Harbor in the early 1990s and now live in San Benito. Eggers remembered Pearl Harbor being isolated and accessible only by plane or boat.
Guam native Wilson Lucero is another member. He said his grandparents lost 10 sons in the Japanese attack on the U.S. fleet.
“My mom and all the little kids were taken by the Japanese, 5,000 of them to be interred,” he said. “My mom made it back, she was very lucky. On my father’s side in the Philippines they went through the same brutal treatment. They took the family and burned the houses.”
