Utah high school band visits, performs at namesake memorial
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| A bugler from the Timpview High School Band plays a solo during a performance at the USS Utah Memorial on Ford Island Nov. 23. |
Story and photos by
JO3 Tim Walsh, Staff Writer
The band played several patriotic tunes for a small audience that included many children from a neighborhood on Ford Island surrounding the memorial.
Also in attendance was a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor which happened nearly 60 years ago. The music played by the band stirred Edward Chung who was a pipe fitter at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in 1941.
"This ceremony here today touches the depths of my heart," a visibly moved Chung said. "It brings back a lot of memories. I'm glad that they are honoring the men of the Utah because they are too often neglected."
Chung was not the only one moved during the ceremony. Kendal Pearson, a sophomore from Timpview High School who plays the snare drum with the band, said that this was more important than playing a regular venue.
"We've been studying World War II and more specifically the attack on Pearl Harbor. Reading about it and learning about it is very different from being here," Pearson said of the experience.
"Seeing the sites that we have been studying really brings it to life."
According to the band director, David Fulmer, the musicians the made the trips had been preparing for months. He explained that the students had to raise the funds for the journey and fulfill certain academic requirements."The students worked very hard to get here. They've become little Pearl Harbor historians," mused Fulmer.
"This opportunity for the students is unlike any other. They are standing looking at what thing they have studied and labored to know about."
Their education continued prior to the performance when Journalist Senior Chief (SW) Phil Eggman of Navy Region Hawaii addressed the band.
"We are losing our history and our survivors. Your great uncles and grandfathers are passing on. With them, goes our history," said Eggman of the importance of honoring and remembering those that sacrificed so much."Here we stand on hallowed ground. Your studying the attack on Pearl Harbor and coming out here is one of the greatest honors you can offer."
THE USS UTAH ASSOCIATION SALUTES THE HAWAII NAVY NEWS