Patrick Wilkins flanked his two sons as they stared up at the words, engraved in marble, spoken by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Dec. 8, 1941.
“A date which will live in infamy,” the Beaufort, S.C., native said quietly to his sons. “That happened 66 years ago today guys. Pearl Harbor.”
Walking slowly through the World War II Memorial on the National Mall as a constant, cold drizzle fell from the gray Friday sky, Wilkins and his sons, Matt, 9, and Thomas, 7, stopped at many of the engraved quotes. But it was the quote from Roosevelt’s famous speech to Congress requesting a declaration of war after the Japanese surprise attack on Hawaii he really wanted to show them.
“It’s important that they get to see something like this,” Wilkins said. “This is such an important part of our history, and I think too often these days, kids just have no idea.”
With World War II veterans dying at a rate of 1,500 a day, there has never been a more important time to put children in touch with their history, Wilkins said.
Ed Stephany was 10 when the attacks occurred and said what he most remembers is the shock the country felt. Stephany, from Mount Dora, Fla., spent part of the afternoon walking through the monument with his wife, Dolores, and their daughter Pam.
“This is just a great thing,” said Stephany, who went on to serve 30 years as a Navy aviator, as he glanced around the monument. “It represents a time when the United States had to prove itself, and we ended up changing the world.”
A few feet away, Vickie Alsabrook, Sheila Schmidt and Roni Rynning stood in front Roosevelt’s words and looked back and forth between a wreath set in front of the wall and the flags in front of the monument lowered to half-staff.
he three Georgia natives said their fathers and uncles fought in the war.
“In that era, they all just wanted to serve,” said Rynning, who is retired from the Air Force. “And that was what they did, and we are a better country for it.”
