On the 79th National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, Owego / Tioga County will remember her first WWII casualty, who is still aboard the USS Arizona, and four deceased Pearl Harbor Survivors.
The commemoration will also honor the 2,390 Americans lives lost during the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Island of O’ahu on Dec. 7, 1941.
The community is asked to observe a moment of silence at 12:55 p.m., the exact moment the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began. Officials say 1,177 U.S. servicemen were killed aboard the ship that had arrived one day earlier at Pearl Harbor.
Seaman Delmar Dale Sibley is entombed on the USS Arizona and is memorialized at Courts of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific Honolulu, Hawaii.
The 23-year-old Navy enlistee was born in South Dakota and moved to Owego to live with his uncle, Owego Police Chief Earl Sibley.
Four from Tioga County survived Pearl Harbor. They include Army Air Corps Sergeant Charles “Bill” Kennedy of Owego, U.S. Marine Lester Dunham of Owego, Army Technical Sergeant Donald Stocks of Owego, and Army Sergeant Richard Hopkins of Berkshire.
Marie Ward of Owego found an article in the Dec. 11, 1941 Owego Gazette, saying that two Naval Officers and several Soldiers and Sailors from Tioga County were in Hawaii of the time of the attack. Whether any of these men were harmed by the treacherous attack made by the Japanese is not known. Response from the community is encouraged.
Newark Valley and vicinity: Pvt. Arthur Rhodes, and Navy service member George Walker. Richford and vicinity: Chester Marsh, Michael J. Wilkes, and Amasa Morton. Candor and vicinity: Bronson Butterfield, Foster Fessenden, Albert Luciani, Redding C. Kent, and Donald Vergason. Spencer: Roger Emmons, Ensign Roderick Emmons, Roscoe Benjamin, and Nornan Bukkila. Nichols: Donald Dean, Floyd Beam, Leslie Simons, Eugene Kline, and Lester Rogers. Owego area: Donald Bowman, James Dingman, Langdon Williams, Eugene Wright, James Shaffer, and John Kushner. Catatonk: Roscoe Benjamin, and Arthur Nagel.
The two officers were Lt. Commander Cornelus Seabring of Spencer, and Lt. Robert V. R. Bassett, Jr. of Owego.
Updates are appreciated by email to jraftis2@stny.rr.com.
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