Stories of American Heroes - Brought to you from the "Home of Heroes" - Pueblo, Colorado

Fifteen men received Medals of Honor for their heroic actions at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  Only five of those men survived their moment of heroism, one of them dying in action 11 months later.  Today, only John Finn survives.  He will celebrate his 91st birthday on July 24, 2000.  We pray for his continued health.  Too few REAL heroes remain.

Though only these fifteen men received our Nation's highest award, each would have been quick to point to the courage and valor of the many others who were heroes that day, whose deeds may have passed unnoticed and unheralded.   In almost every community around our Nation, there are still living survivors of that horrible day.  As a nation we owe them much...our respect, our thanks, and our compassion.  But, more than anything else, we owe it to these valiant men, never to forget the events of December 7, 1941.  God bless America.

The Memorials

The USS Arizona memorial was proposed as early as 1943 and began taking shape with the Territory of Hawaii's establishment of the Pacific War Memorial Commission in 1949. In 1950 a flagpole was erected over the sunken ruins of the USS Arizona.

Work on the present memorial began in 1958 and it was dedicated in 1962. Designed by Alfred Preis, it is one of the most visited attractions in Hawaii. The memorial wall contains the names of all those lost on the USS Arizona on December 7, 1941.

Mr. Preis described its design by saying, "Wherein the structure sags in the center but stands strong and vigorous at the ends, (it) expresses initial defeat and ultimate victory."

On the north side of Ford Island is a lesser recognized and therefore less-visited memorial to the 58 sailors lost on the USS Utah.  From the memorial walkway those who do visit can still  see the overturned hull of the ship which still contains the bodies of 54 sailors and one infant girl.

The Pearl Harbor Memorial was dedicated in  1992 and rededicated after renovation in 1995.  The memorial displays 12 eight-foot metal and glass illumintated columns.  Eleven columns represent a ship sunk or damaged on December 7, 1941.   The twelfth is for all those who risked and sacrificed so much on December 7, 1941

Located inside the Naval Station at Pearl Harbor, its focus is to remember not a single ship, but all who were lost as well as those who survived, the Day of Infamy.