JROTC cadets pay tribute to Pearl Harbor victims and survivors

Seventy-four years have passed, but the event has not been forgotten. Those not yet born when the bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred paid homage to the lives lost that day and they paid tribute.

 

The Copperas Cove JROTC Bulldog Battalion Honor Guard and cadets stood at attention as the sun peeked over the top of the high school on Monday morning. With a call to attention, cadets proceeded to set the flags at half-staff as the remaining battalion snapped into a salute.

 

CCHS Principal Miguel Timarky then carried a wreath, standing it between the flag poles to commemorate the loss of more than 2,000 lives and the more than 1,000 wounded on what is now known as Pearl Harbor Day. Taps began to play by the JROTC trumpeter Sgt. Irvin Maranda, making the ceremony even more somber. Students, teachers and parents stopped and saluted or stood in place.

 

“The mood was sad for when the moment of Pearl Harbor happened even though we weren’t around for the event,” Cadet SSG Cheyenne Easley said. “It is still history.”

 

Pearl Harbor was hit with a military strike from Japanese Navy against America’s Navy in American territory in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941. Twenty American naval vessels including eight enormous battleships were destroyed. Over 2,000 soldiers died that day and 1,000 were wounded. This attack on Pearl Harbor is what led the United States to join World War II.

 

“The experience of our detail shows we respect the fallen and history,” Cadet First Sgt. Truman Kilpatrick said. “It helps remember history and opens our eyes”.

 

The Copperas Cove High School Excel Club, a youth extension of the Exchange Club, presented a plaque to CCHS Principal Miguel Timarky as part of the National Exchange Proudly We Hail program which honors individuals and organizations who proudly honor and display the American flag.

 

“No symbol inspires respect and love of country more than our American flag — the Stars and Stripes,” Cove Noon Exchange Club member Charles Lyons said. “That is why Exchange encourages all Americans to properly fly the flag as an ongoing, highly visible expression of that respect.”