Gone, but not forgotten

 "A date that will live in infamy", December 7th, were words delivered by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor on that fateful Sunday morning in 1941.  Those actions plunged the US headlong in to WWII, something that forever helped influence the course of modern history.

There have been a number of survivor stories detailing those horrific events, but there was one story my father shared which gave us the personal element that oftentimes gets lost after the passage of time.  It was about Father Aloysius Schmitt.

After serving as a parish priest, Father Aloysius Schmitt joined the US Navy and was assigned to serve as chaplain aboard the USS Oklahoma.  On the morning of December 7th, rather than saving lives with his words of wisdom, he was saving lives with his actions.  Evidently, the Oklahoma had sustained heavy damage and was listing in the harbor, but before she sank, Father Schmitt assisted a number of sailors to safety.  He was quoted as saying, “Please let go of me, and may God bless you all.”

On a day when we should remember those lost on December 7th, I will remember, too, the other men and women who fought so bravely for their country in the wake of those attacks.  Honoring their fallen comrades and serving their country was the supreme sacrifice.  My father's cousin would have been honored knowing that others survived and that his life hadn't been lost in vain.  Peace!