The city of Seaside honored American World War II with a proclamation for “Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.”
The proclamation comes with a freshening up of the city’s two metal plaques on the First Avenue bridge, on the northwest end and center of the bridge.
Public Works Director Dale McDowell read the proclamation at Monday’s City Council meeting. He remembered those killed and wounded after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, marking the nation’s entry into the war on Dec. 7, 1941.
“Today we honor those who fought and died at Pearl Harbor, and we pay special tribute to the veterans of World War II,” he read. “Those heroes hold a cherished place in our history. Through their courage, sacrifice, and selfless dedication, they saved our country and preserved freedom.”
The proclamation was unanimously endorsed by members of the council.
Seaside’s legacy of Pearl Harbor remembrance has deep roots.
Bill Thomas, a seaman on the USS Medusa, was “the impetus” for Seaside’s Pearl Harbor remembrance, former Mayor Don Larson said in 2015. In the 1970s, Thomas moved to Seaside where he rallied for veterans and proposed a Pearl Harbor memorial on the First Avenue Bridge.
The granite plaque in the center of the bridge was installed in 1991, McDowell said after the meeting.
With the dedication of the bronze plaque at the bridge’s northwest corner on Dec. 7, 2000, the bridge was renamed the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge.
Thomas died in 2016.
The county’s last remaining survivor, Spurgeon D. Keeth, was an honored guest last
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