University marks bombing with annual remembrance at USS W.Va. mast and bell
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Keynote speaker Andrew Chancey did not attend WVU’s remembrance ceremony commemorating the 79th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in person Monday, as he tested positive for COVID over the weekend.
But that didn’t keep the Marine Corps veteran and senior at the Chambers College of Business and Economics from addressing the crowd, which gathered at the USS West Virginia mast and bell in front of Oglebay Hall on the university’s downtown campus.
“We linked him into the sound system by phone … and he sounded better than I did on the mic,” said Jerry Wood, director of the WVU Center for Veteran, Military and Family Programs.
In lieu of his presence, organizers displayed Chancey’s Marine Corps uniform, along with his grandfather’s World War II Army and great-uncle’s World War II Navy uniforms.
In addition to his speech, there was a 21-gun salute with three volleys fired during the ceremony, which marked an important milestone in American history. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor, a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, and killed 2,403 Americans. The surprise military strike launched the U.S. into World War II.
“It all worked out on such short notice,” Wood said of the unconventional keynote address. “It seemed fitting for the chaos of 2020 and the importance of overcoming the challenges of the pandemic, like the servicemen and women of Pearl Harbor overcame the attack and how we persevered over the course of World War II.”
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