December 7th
A Day to Remember
Laughlin, NV
December 7th, 2000
Laughlin 
is located at the very southern tip of Nevada
where Arizona and California meet in a triangle. Although the
countryside is pretty barren we still found many things to do. We
had heard about a gathering of Veterans on this date at a local
museum commemorating the attack on Pearl Harbor. The second floor
of the Ramada Express, in Laughlin, has been converted into a
Veterans museum. The hotel hosted a Veterans recognition and
appreciation gathering to which Pearl Harbor survivors were
invited. As we rolled down the main drag of this gambling town we
couldn't help think that the advertisements about the museum were
going to turn out to be just some kind of hype to get people in
to that particular casino. After parking the car, we walked to
the front of the Ramada
and took a look at their old time steam train.
Huffing and puffing, it sat at their period-designed station with
manikins in old west period costume in attendance. We hopped
aboard for free and rode around the building taking in the
sights. The panorama is nothing less then spectacular. It was the
time of day when the sun was reflecting off the mountains in the
distance and creating an amber spectacle of the landscape before
us. After this we popped into the elevator and came out on the
second floor. For all intents and purposes, commercialism stopped
here. The second floor is dedicated to, and completely restricted
to, information 
about
Veterans. And what a job they did! The room is big, probably
taking up the same floor space as the casino below. The center of
the room is open, as in an auditorium with the walls reserved for
displays about WW II. There is a concentrated effort to bring out
the December 7th raid on Pearl Harbor, and it is that event that
had brought us here on this date. The date of December 7th has
for the last couple of decades been an important date to me as my
oldest daughter was born on that occasion. Besides that, there
was the infamous bombing 
of Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, that rammed
the United States into WW II. Today, the room was reserved for
the Veterans of that bombing and we were there to witness the
occasion. I was quite surprised to find that a dozen or so showed
up. Most of them were over 80 years old. The presentation started
off with a multimedia show honoring all veterans. Four projectors
ran a series of slides while people sang and colors flashed. It
was quite moving. I watched as the WW II seaman next to me,
quietly cried while he watched. The master of ceremonies, Andy
Weniger opened with a commentary on his reflection as he stood on
Hickam Field watching the planes he was to fly bombed 
into balls of
fire and twisted metal. A thirty year veteran, he survived and
went on to bomb the shores of Normandy on D Day, June 6, yet
another day that lives in infamy. On December 7th, 2403 people
officially died in the bombing. There were many heroes that day,
in addition to the servicemen, there were women who were serving
as nurses. One of these nurses was 87 year old LaVern Benike who
was on duty at the Queens Hospital that morning and talked about
going outside to see the commotion and reflecting on the slow
realization that they were witnessing the beginning of
war as they watched the ships in Pearl Harbor receiving the
devastating punishment delivered by the Japanese attack bombers.
Many of the survivors had brought their personal photo albums and
scrap books with them which were filled with brown tinted and
badly faded snapshots of Hawaii, Honolulu and Pearl Harbor. There
were
even a few shots taken after the attack although most admitted
that there really wasn't much time for pictures at that point in
time. The stories told through shaking voices were moving. At the
end, all the December 7th veterans gathered for a picture and
promised to be there again next year to do it again. It was quite
moving. The museum and multi-media show are permanent and free to
all who would stop by. The displays cover a variety of thoughts
from the history of the famous Spam can to what it was like to
wear the 40 lb. field pack issued to everyone going overseas.
There were posters and placards about women in the war effort and
some dioramas depicting what a common household might look like
during the early '40s. It was a nice afternoon for an old war
buff or a veteran looking for a piece of his past.
* * * THE END * * *
