The Beacon on Mount Diablo was originally installed and illuminated in 1928 to aid in transcontinental aviation. The ceremony is also an opportunity to honor the survivors. “The Beacon lighting is a tribute to those individuals that lost their lives at Pearl Harbor,” remarked Earl “Chuck” Kohler, one of the few remaining survivors in Contra Costa County. Then Frank Dorritie of Bugles Across America will perform “Taps.” A performance of “America the Beautiful” by Erin Hegerty will follow. Pearl Harbor survivors in attendance will also be invited to speak. Robert Phelps, PhD, Executive Director of California State University, East Bay Concord Campus will then be invited to speak. The program begins with the posting of colors, pledge of allegiance, and national anthem, followed by opening remarks by Ted Clement, Executive Director of Save Mount Diablo and then ceremonial observations by Eddie Guaracha, Diablo Range District Superintendent for California State Parks. The outdoor ceremony will commence at 3:45 PM. Viewing of the new USS Arizona exhibit at the CSUEB Concord Campus will be available from 3:00 PM to 3:45 PM as well as 45 minutes post ceremony. The California State University system requires all campus visitors to be vaccinated or have a valid exemption. Weather permitting, the ceremony will be held outdoors at the California State University, East Bay Concord Campus, at 4700 Ygnacio Valley Road in Concord. We invite you to attend the ceremony to pay tribute to the lives that were lost and honor our surviving veterans of Pearl Harbor. This event is co-sponsored by Save Mount Diablo California State Parks California State University, East Bay Concord Campus and the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, Chapter 5. Note: The proclamation was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on December 3.WALNUT CREEK, CA-On December 7th, Mount Diablo’s Beacon will be relit by survivors of Pearl Harbor. In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this second day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh. Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim December 7, 1986, as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, and I call upon the people of the United States to observe this solemn occasion with appropriate ceremonies and activities and to pledge eternal vigilance and strong resolve to defend this Nation and its allies from all future aggression. The Congress, by Public Law 99 - 534, has designated Decem, as ``National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day'' and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this day. We live in a world made more free, more just, and more peaceful by those who will answer roll call no more, those who will report for muster never again. As President Franklin Roosevelt told our Nation the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked, ``It is our obligation to our dead - it is our sacred obligation to their children and our children - that we must never forget what we have learned.''
We do so as well by protecting the Nation and the freedom they protected and by forging the resolve, the strength, and the military preparedness necessary to deter attack and to preserve and build the peace. Their sacrifice was for a cause, not for conquest for a world that would be safe for future generations. Such destruction seared the memory of a generation and galvanized the will of the American people in a fight to maintain our right to freedom without fear.Įvery honor is appropriate for the courageous Americans who made the supreme sacrifice for our Nation at Pearl Harbor and in the many battles that followed in World War II. This attack claimed the lives of 2,403 Americans, wounded 1,178 more, and damaged our naval capabilities in the Pacific. On that Sunday morning, 45 years ago, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched an unprovoked, surprise attack upon units of the Armed Forces of the United States stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Of these occurrences, none could have had more significance for our Nation than Decem.
In the annals of American history, only a few events are so well-known and so deeply rooted in national remembrance that the mere mention of their date suffices to describe them. By the President of the United States of America