MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII -- This morning, Marine Corps Base Hawaii will be honor the 18 sailors and two civilian contractors who died here Dec. 7, 1941.
Today marks the 71st anniversary of the Japanese attacks on Oahu. The annual Kaneohe Klipper Memorial Ceremony is scheduled this morning at Hangar 101 at 8 a.m.
On that day in 1941, aircraft of the Japanese Imperial Navy attacked Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay. At 7:52 a.m., eight minutes before the attacks at Pearl Harbor, the quiet peace of that Sunday morning was shattered by the sudden rattling of strafing machine-gun fire and the explosions of bombs. Two waves of Japanese Zero aircraft assaulted the runway and hangars of the air station, destroying 27 of the 33 PBY Catalina aircraft on the ground.
By the time the dust settled, 18 sailors and two civilians had been killed; Hangar 101 was destroyed by fire, and all but three planes (out on patrol) were destroyed.
A group of survivors and family members founded the Klipper Association years later. The Klipper Association was responsible for dedicating the monument by the flag pole in 1981. They held a reunion here on base every five years. In 2005, the Klipper Association disbanded. However, every year MCB Hawaii holds the Kaneohe Klipper Memorial Ceremony to honor those individuals who sacrificed their lives that sombering Sunday morning.
Medal of Honor recipient and retired Navy Lt. John Finn was a naval ordnance chief Dec. 7, 1941 at NAS Kaneohe Bay on the day of the attacks. He manned a .50-caliber machine gun in a completely exposed section of the aircraft parking ramp. Although painfully wounded many times, he continued to man his gun and returned the enemy’s fire vigorously and with telling effect throughout the enemy’s strafing and bombing attacks.
Finn was the guest speaker at the Kaneohe Klipper Memorial Ceremony in 2009. In 2011, a memorial plaque in honor of Finn was unveiled during the Klipper ceremony, and the plaque was placed at Hangar 103, where Finn’s office was located.