The Philadelphia Protestant Home, 6401 Martins Mill Road, recognized the 79th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing with a Monday morning ceremony.
Director of community relations Bill Conaway explained that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, residents were invited to watch the ceremony in their rooms on PPH’s in-house television at 2 p.m.
Conaway joined security guard Jorge Rodriguez, a U.S. Army veteran, in raising an American flag.
Veteran Jim Walker, a resident, played Taps.
Another veteran and resident, Audrey Alston, sang America the Beautiful.
The Rev. Jack Price, PPH’s chaplain, offered prayer.
U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle believes the Japanese bombing of the Honolulu naval base on Dec. 7, 1941 led to perhaps America’s most shining moment — the four years fighting in World War II. Boyle noted that he arranged to have an American flag fly in memory of Holme Circle’s Alex Horanzy, the last living Philadelphian to survive Pearl Harbor. Horanzy died in October at age 98.
State Rep. Jared Solomon thanked Conaway and PPH CEO John Dubyk and executive assistant Kathy Wersinger for remembering “a date which will live in infamy,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt said. Solomon, saying that 2020 could be considered a year of infamy, thanked Protestant Home frontline workers for sacrificing, much like members of the Greatest Generation did almost eight decades ago. ••
