Flags ordered to half-staff for Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – Governor Matt Bevin is directed that flags at all state office buildings be lowered to half-staff Saturday in observance of National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

On December 7, the country will honor the memory of the more than 2,400 Americans who died in the surprise attack on the U.S. Fleets Pearl Harbor base in the early morning hours of December 7, 1941.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it a date that will live in infamy and signed the Declaration of War against Japan the following day, 78 years ago.

Of the 1,177 Sailors and Marines who died on the USS Arizona, at least 19 were Kentuckians:

• Fireman First Class Purdy Renaker Bedford
• Fireman Third Class Walter Karr Bolling
• Fire Controlman Third Class Jack C. Buckley
• Seaman First Class William Milford Cox
• Gunners Mate Second Class Cecil Thomas Crowe
• Private James Berkley Dawson
• Coxswain Wand B. Doyle
• Electricians Mate Third Class William Walker Ford
• Seaman First Class Elmo Howard
• Ensign Robert Lawrence Leopold
• Seaman Second Class Leroy Manning
• Mess Attendant Second Class Tommy Lee Moss
• Fireman First Class Mervin Eugene Osborne
• Storekeeper ThirdClass Edwin Lester Puckett
• Storekeeper Third Class Clay Cooper Rector
• Boatswains Mate First Class Chester Clay Rose
• Gunners Mate Third Class Lambert Ray Tapp
• Fireman First Class Lenvil Leo Watkins
• Gunners Mate Third Class William Byron Whitt

At one time, more than 100 Pearl Harbor survivors lived in Kentucky. By the attacks 70th anniversary in 2011, the number had dwindled to 18.

All individuals, businesses, organizations, and government agencies are encouraged to join in this tribute.

Flag status information is available by clicking here.