'A sobering, somber experience'

A sailor's son who has called Coeur d'Alene home his whole life is standing on the shores of Pearl Harbor on this day that forever lives in infamy.

"It’s a somber, sobering experience," Randy Weiss, 71, said Wednesday. "You go out and you can smell the diesel and the oil, and there's a sheen of oil on the surface of the water. There’s a room with all the names of the sailors and Marines that are entombed there in the Arizona. It's quite a sobering, somber experience."

Weiss served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1972 to 1975 and his late father, Frank Weiss, was a sailor in World War I.

The younger Weiss and about a dozen people from around the U.S. are touring with the Virginia-based Military Historical Tours, Inc. They are visiting the Pearl Harbor National Memorial and the USS Arizona Memorial on the 82nd anniversary of when Japan launched a surprise attack that sank the battleship Arizona and killed over 2,400 American servicemen and civilians in less than 90 minutes. The attack destroyed or damaged 19 U.S. Navy ships, including eight battleships, according to the U.S. Census. An additional 1,178 were wounded.

"I’ve never seen Pearl Harbor before and I wanted to go," Weiss said. "I’ve never been to Hawaii before. I just wanted to do this."

Pearl Harbor is a U.S. Navy Base and headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet on the southern coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Japan's attack on the picturesque harbor just before 8 a.m. Dec. 7, 1941 plunged America into World War II.

According to the National Archives, President Franklin Roosevelt took a call from Frank Knox, the secretary of the Navy at that time, shortly after the attack.

"Harry Hopkins, a top aide who was with Roosevelt at the time, could not believe the report. But Roosevelt did," reads an article on archives.gov. 

"'It was just the kind of unexpected thing the Japanese would do,'" he is quoted in the article. "'At the very time they were discussing peace in the Pacific, they were plotting to overthrow it.'"

The following day, Roosevelt addressed Congress and requested a declaration of war against Japan.

His historic speech began with these words: "Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941, — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

Weiss and his fellow travelers will witness the ceremonies conducted this morning during the National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 82nd commemoration. The ceremonies are annually attended by Pearl Harbor survivors, veterans and others from around the world who pay tribute to the lives lost and historic events that took place that fateful day.

"We'll be on shore, right at the visitor center," Weiss said. "It’s humbling and it's somber. It's just an experience I wanted to have for my memories."

  

    The USS Arizona Memorial, on top of the sunken Battleship USS Arizona at Battleship Row at Ford Island in the center of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, is seen Monday. Today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, a day to pay tribute to the lives lost during the Japanese military attack that plunged the U.S. into World War II 82 years ago.

 

    Lifelong Coeur d'Alene resident, Marine and son of a World War I sailor Randy Weiss is seen in front of the statue of King Kamehameha outside of Ali'iolani Palace in Honolulu. Weiss will be attending ceremonies at Pearl Harbor today.
  

    World War II veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor Ed Carroll, 99, of Salt Lake City, seated, is seen Monday at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial. Today marks 82 years since the Japanese attack that thrust the U.S. into World War II.