According to a Dec. 7, 2000, article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of the region’s largest Pearl Harbor Day remembrance ceremonies was hosted yearly at Allegheny County Airport. The ceremony would begin at 12:55 p.m. to coincide with the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The surprise air raid began at 7:55 a.m. (Hawaii time), took the lives of about 2,400 Americans and sent the United States into World War II.

Pearl Harbor survivors, military organizations, schoolchildren, bands and politicians participated. Tony Macioce, Aviation Duty Manager at AGC, recalls the ceremony fondly.

“The local veterans’ groups would come out each year and meet around the fountain. We would always put out new flags and make sure everything looked nice,” he said.

As more WWII veterans passed, so too, did the ceremony at AGC, which was eventually moved to a local high school in the mid-2000s. According to the National WWII Museum, 496,777 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are still alive in 2018.

We remember them today and every day.