Remembrance ceremony

Cub Scout Harrison Deuel ,11, joins Marion County Veterans Services Director and U.S. Navy veteran Daisy Diaz and World War II veteran Howard Mautner, 101, at a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Ceremony on Dec. 7, 2025, at the Marion County Board of County Commissioners Auditorium. [Photo by Andy Fillmore/Ocala Gazette]

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Posted December 8, 2025 | By Andy Fillmore, [email protected]

A Pearl Harbor Day remembrance ceremony was held Dec. 7 at the Marion County Board of County Commissioners Auditorium in Ocala.

The ceremony paid homage to members of the U.S. armed forces and civilians who lost their lives as a result of the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii early on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, by Japanese forces, which led America into World War II.

Harrison Deuel, 11, of Cub Scout Pack 692, led the audience in the pledge of allegiance. He was clearly honored to be a part of the ceremony.

“I learned a lot of important things today,” Harrison said.

World War II veteran Howard Mautner, 101, was an honored guest at the ceremony. He joined the Army soon after the Pearl Harbor attack. Mautner served in the Army Air Corps and was involved in aircraft flight control. He has visited the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Honolulu.

The remembrance ceremony was presented by Marion County Veterans Services and Daisy Diaz, a U.S. Navy veteran and director of the county office, served as emcee.

The attack 84 years ago at Pearl Harbor saw 2,008 members of the U.S. Navy killed or missing, 109 members of the U.S. Marine Corps, 218 U.S. Army soldiers and 68 civilians, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command website, which notes that Japanese losses included under 100 men and 29 planes.

American vessels that were sunk included five battleships, three destroyers and a gunnery training ship, with others damaged, along 188 American aircraft destroyed, according to the website.

Fifteen members of the U.S. Navy were awarded the Medal of Honor “for acts of courage above and beyond the call of duty.” Ten of the decorations were presented posthumously, the site states.

Tom Gall, a Navy veteran, offered an invocation and benediction during the ceremony in Ocala. Hannah Stuckey sang the national anthem and Renee Coventry read the poem “Pearl Harbor” by Connie Moore. The Marion County Memorial Honor Guard posted and retired the colors and provide a title salute and the playing of taps.

Keynote speaker Tim Lafferty, a former member of the Merchant Marine and currently a volunteer at Empath Hospice of Marion County and the Ocala-Marion County Veterans Memorial Park, said the attack was an act of “violence which changed the world forever. “

“America was on a war footing overnight,” he said.

Lafferty said the Pearl Harbor attack launched members of what news broadcaster Tom Brokaw dubbed the “Greatest Generation” into World War II and the battle to save the world from fascism.

Lafferty said the members of the Greatest Generation approached their service with “duty, honor and dedication hard to comprehend today” and women, often represented by the Rosie the Riveter character, worked factory and other essential jobs.

The entire country pulled together in the war effort to conserve critical materials like gasoline, Lafferty said.

Lafferty said Americans should “look to the example of the Greatest Generation” for unity.

Jack Edge, a Navy veteran, Pearl Harbor survivor and Ocala area resident who passed away in 2021 at the age of 97, according to an online obituary, was an honored guest at many previous local Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremonies.

Edge’s ship, the USS Pelias, fired at enemy aircraft and, evidently, that fire, combined with fire from another ship, led to a Japanese plane being downed at Pearl Harbor, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command website.

Edge stressed the importance of remaining vigilant and remembering Pearl Harbor as an attack on the country could occur again, according to prior reports.