Twin Cities coming together to honor local sailor, others killed at Pearl Harbor
UHRICHSVILLE (WJER) (Dec. 6, 2022)- There will be a somber gathering at the city park tomorrow morning to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the attack at pearl harbor and honor the local native who lost his life there.
Cathy Cottis organizes the community’s yearly tribute to Navy Ensign James Haverfield, carrying on the tradition the late MaryLee McClave started 21 years ago. She says it always begins at the time the first bomber appeared over the harbor – at 7:55 am – and ends with a moment of silence.
“Typically, it’s just the same service every year. I reach out to the schools, and I have the high school choir sing the national anthem. I have asked a flutist to play a verse of ‘Amazing Grace.’ There will be some readings.”
Cottis says it’s important not to forget the sacrifice Haverfield and more than 2,000 others made while serving our nation on that fateful morning.
“So it’s just a way to just remember, and I think that somebody that enjoys history and is from this community or just likes history could come and be a part of that.”
Haverfield graduated from Uhrichsville high school and attended college at Ohio State University, where there’s a dormitory named in his honor. He was also the namesake of a warship that the navy decommissioned and scrapped decades ago. Cottis says sailors who served aboard it typically travel to the city to share remarks during the service.