10:50 am, and the crowd has already assembled on the Ocean Grove pier. December 7, 2015. Paul Goldfinger photographs. ©  Click to enlarge.

By Paul Goldfinger, MD.  Blogfinger.net    While we are on the subject of Pearl Harbor Day.

Every December 7, at 11:00 am, a group of service club members and citizens meet at the fishing pier to remember the atrocity which was Pearl Harbor. We lost 2,400 Americans on that day in 1941 “which shall live in infamy”  (FDR.)

The Ocean Grove event is quite unusual as most towns in USA do not have such ceremonies.  Each year the ritual is unchanged:  The Neptune High School color guard is present; military organizations are there; taps are played, a prayer is recited, and “God Bless America”  is sung.  A few words are spoken to remember the soldiers and sailors who died that day, and mention was made of those who made the supreme sacrifice for America in other conflicts.    A floral wreath is tossed into the ocean.

Taps sound and echo over the water. Blogfinger.net ©

As the crowd began to disburse, a female member of the Neptune VFW  heads back and then enters the beach,  walking slowly to the waters edge, as if to offer her personal tribute.  Then she walks back onto the boards where Blogfinger gets to speak to her for a few minutes  (see below).

Neptune High School honor guard. Blogfinger .net ©

Neptune VFW. Blogfinger.net ©

The color guard must be shown in color. Blogfinger.net ©

RUBY BRAFF AND DICK HYMAN  “America the Beautiful”