Annual Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day to include two presentations and display of WW II memoribilia

World War II Veterans gather for the last photo taken together at American Legion Post 2 at the Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremonies in December 2018. | Neal Supranovich

Posted By: Staff December 4, 2023

The annual Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day will be held this Thursday at American Legion Post 2 on Hooker Court at 11 a.m. The event will feature two presentations, the USS Kidd Bell Ringing by Iwo Jima survivor Joe Caminiti and the Missing Man ceremony.

World War II items will be on display.

The first presentation, by World War II Legacy Foundation’s Gary Roy and Marianne Mihhalyo, will cover the attack on Pearl Harbor and Connecticut soldiers who were on duty that day. Among those whose lives will be recounted is Bristol native Ed Riccio Jr.

Bristol’s Ed Riccio survived the attack on Pearl Harbor. | American Legion Post 2

A second presentation by Post 2 historian Neal Supranovich will cover guardsmen from Bristol who were activated for World War II. In February 1941, members of C. Company 169 began a full year of training in the South, in anticipation of the U.S. joining the war effort. The Day after Pearl Harbor attack, they were activated into the regular Army and after their training joined the war effort on the Pacific front. They were in New Caledonia, Guadalcanal, Russell Islands, and Rendova, New Guinea and on to Luzon.  

Many of these veterans donated items to the Memorial Military Museum. These items will be on display.

 Veterans Tim Gamache and Ed Litherland will man the POW/MIA table, as part of the Missing Man ceremony.

All veterans will be recognized at the event.

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