These VSMS students volunteered to help during the Pearl Harbor memorial.
A replica of the USS Arizona is among the items on display during the annual Pearl Harbor ceremony.
Morgan White drew this picture in memory of Pearl Harbor.
Nathan Harrelson plays Taps in honor of those lost when the USS Arizona sank.
Don Roepke, a long time leader of the VFW, told Alex Vasquez on Sunday about one of his neighbors, a Navy veteran who had the awful job of recovering the remains of his fellow sailors after the fires and explosions that took place at Pearl Harbor in 1941.
"Every Dec. 7, I would see him just sit there and cry," Roepke told the teacher at the conclusion of the annual Pearl Harbor memorial service.
Vazquez, a VS Middle School history teacher whose grandfather served in the Pacific in World War II, began the annual tradition several years ago. Now, regardless of what day of the week Dec. 7 falls on, Vasquez and several students help keep the memory of Pearl Harbor alive with an hour-long ceremony.
More than 70 people joined Vasquez and his students on Sunday; they represented one of the largest crowds to attend.
Student Nathan Harrelson played taps after Vasquez paused for a moment of silence at the exact minute of the day that the Arizona sank, taking more than 1,100 sailors to their deaths. Other students read reports of commanding officers of other ships, praising the response of American personnel to the surprise attack.
Vasquez also told the audience about the resolve of the U.S. Navy to sink all of the aircraft carriers involved in the attack, and how that eventually happened during the course of the war. He also spoke about Nancy Wagner, an infant daughter of a sailor. Nancy had died at just a few first few weeks of age, and her ashes were in her father's locker, awaiting burial at sea. That urn remains in that locker, aboard the USS Utah, which sunk after the attack. Her family says that they consider the more than 60 sailors who died aboard the Utah to be Nancy's guardians.
In addition to a brief summary of the events leading up to "The Day of Infamy," and the kinds of planes and weapons the Japanese used, the ceremony includes displays of several artifacts.
A piece of iron from the USS Arizona is part of that collection. American uniforms, Japanese swords and ration books are among the other items on display each Pearl Harbor Day. A blanket that Vasquez's grandfather retrieved from the Pacific Ocean after the sinking of another American ship covered the table where the piece of iron from the Arizona was displayed.
See more photos HERE.
Below are links containing more information about stories which Vasquez has shared in recent years:
Medal of Honor recipient hit more than 20 times
The fate of the 6 Japanese aircraft carriers of the Pearl Harbor Strike Force
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