Veterans and citizens will gather at the Veterans Memorial at Kanapaha Park on Sunday to remember the attack on Pearl Harbor.
This is the sixth year that the Gen. James A.Van Fleet of Chapter 267 of the Korean War Veterans Association has held the event to remember the soldiers who died at the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. It will take place from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday.
“We took over the event six years ago because I had a father in World War I and a brother in World War II, and as long as I’m a commander, I’m going to have the Pearl Harbor remembrance because I don’t want to ever have anybody forget that it happened,” said retired Army Capt. Dick Davis, commander of the Korean War Veterans Association here.
Alachua County has 20,000 veterans, Davis said. Last year, about 80 people attended.
“This is a big day for us; we want to get a crowd here and we want to continue doing it for years to come,” Davis said. “Every year we really do have outstanding speakers.”
This year, Jim Lynch, who served as the director of the Veterans Service Office in Alachua County for 33 years, will be the emcee of the event, and Capt. Brad Robinson of the UF Navy ROTC will be the guest speaker.
Among the planned events are a drill team exhibition by the Billy Mitchell Drill Team of UF and a showcasing of military music.
