In this photo from Memorial Day 2013, Owego resident Bill Kennedy, a WWII veteran who was at Pearl Harbor, was recognized at the ceremony. We thank Bill for his service, and remember all who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is Sunday, Dec. 7. (Photo by JoAnn R. Walter)
On National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, which is Sunday, Dec. 7, Owego and Tioga County honors the memory of the 1,117 gallant sailors and marines entombed and their shipmates who gave their lives in action on the U.S.S. Arizona. American flags fly at half-staff on “A Day That Will Live in Infamy.”
Five Tioga County servicemen were at Pearl Harbor that Sunday morning 73 years ago. One made the supreme sacrifice and four became Pearl Harbor Survivors and eventually returned home after other South Pacific combat.
The general public and veterans from all wars and are welcome to attend a special remembrance ceremony for the Pearl Harbor heroes and survivors at 8:55 a.m. – the time Japan bombed Pearl Harbor –at the Tioga County Veterans Memorial on the south lawn of the Tioga County Courthouse.
Tioga County’s first WWII casualty was Seaman First Class Delmar Dale Sibley of Owego, killed in action aboard the Battleship U.S.S. Arizona at age 23 and 23 days before his 24th birthday. Delmar lived with his uncle and aunt, Owego Police Chief Earl Sibley and his wife Lucy, while working at Endicott Johnson-Owego.
Of the four Tioga County survivors, one is still living and is a “snow bird” and three are deceased.
Army Air Corps’ Charles “Bill” Kennedy of Owego (winters in Raleigh, N.C., where on Nov. 12 he celebrated his 92nd birthday) was at Hickam Field when a flight of some 50 dive bombers and fighters struck where A-20, B-18 and B-17 were parked wingtip to wingtip. Kennedy was with an Air Force squadron of about 240 people.
“We lost ten men and about 32 were wounded, lost all our airplanes and our barracks were pretty well shot up,” Kennedy said.
Lester Dunham of Owego was one of the first from Tioga County to enlist in the Marine Corps in 1939. At the time of the attack he was on guard duty patrolling the docks at Pearl Harbor. The combat Marine fought in the Guadalcanal campaign with comrades in his 1st Marine Division. There he escaped from a foxhole just before it blew up.
Army Tech Sergeant Donald Stocks of Owego was also at Hickam Field. He was a cook on the day of the attack. He left the kitchen and grabbed a rifle to fight. Back home he did not talk about that day.
Army Sergeant Richard Hopkins of Berkshire enlisted April 2, 1940, and arrived in Honolulu June 17, 1940. He was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks at the time of the attack.
Hopkins remembers the planes coming in and bombs dropping. It’s something you do not forget. He recalls looking out of his barracks. “They were hauling wounded on cars and trucks, anything they could get them on to rush them to the hospital.”
Hopkins also spent four months on the front lines at Guadalcanal in charge of two machine gun squads against the Japanese who “would not surrender.” He vividly remembers a Japanese bullet whizzing by his head.
Hopkins is the recipient of the Bronze Star Medal – the nation’s fourth highest award – for his meritorious service in a combat zone.
Were there others from Tioga County at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941? Email what you know to Glenn A. Warner Post 1371 Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Chairman Jim Raftis to jraftis2@stny.rr.com or call (607) 687-4229.
