When Maryland's Pearl Harbor veterans gather today at the Inner Harbor to commemorate the 53rd anniversary of Japan's sneak attack on Hawaii Dec. 7, 1941, they will do so knowing their legacy is secure -- in the hands of their children.
For the first time, members of the new Maryland chapter of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors will join the veterans as their official heirs.
In 1988, the national Pearl Harbor Survivors Association formally appointed Sons and Daughters as the successor organization. Maryland's Sons and Daughters chapter, formed in April, quickly became one of the most active in the country.
"The thing that's gratifying is that there's a sense of mutual pride. We salute them, and they salute us for saluting them," said Robert P. Clark, 46, of Mount Airy, president of the Maryland chapter.
The chapter has 35 members, but it wasn't until last month that it gained its first recruit from the Baltimore area: Marynette Bollinger, 45, of Timonium.
"It is important to continue the lessons we learned," Ms. Bollinger said. "I can relate more personally because it was my father who was there, not someone in a newspaper. We take our democracy very frivolously; other countries are much more aware of it."
Her father, Richard L. Brown, survived being blown overboard from the battleship USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor to fight through the war and watch the Japanese surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay in September 1945.
Among the other members are:
* Randa Poliak Villasenor, 40, of Laurel, who said her membership "keeps my father alive for me."
Her late father, Albert Poliak, was a Navy medic at Pearl Harbor, she said, "and keeping patriotism alive was a very important part of his life."
* Nina DiLorenzo, 29, of Bethesda, the treasurer, whose father, Anthony DiLorenzo, is a Pearl Harbor Survivors officer, said she and her siblings became national members before the chapter was formed. "I wanted to get involved," she said. "I have learned so much from talking to these people. I don't want history to repeat itself."
Late joiner
* Robert Wagner, 38, of Bowie said his father, Jack Wagner, was at Hickam Field in the Army Air Corps during the attack but didn't join the survivors group until just before the 50th anniversary. His three children then joined the Sons and Daughters, Mr. Wagner said. "Dad rarely ever talked about the attack, but since we joined we've met a lot of great people and we've learned a lot more about it," he said.
Clark Martin, 78, of Richmond, Va., a retired Navy commander, sponsored the succession resolution and is the national liaison between Pearl Harbor Survivors and Sons and Daughters. "It's important for somebody to carry on after we're gone," said Mr. Martin, who was disbursing officer aboard the battleship USS Pennsylvania, which was bombed while trapped in a drydock.
The seed for the Maryland Sons and Daughters chapter was planted 37 years ago, when Bob Clark, then a 9-year-old schoolboy, told his father about that day's history lesson on the Pearl Harbor attack and was incredulous when his father replied, "Yes, I know. I was there."
Clarence "Cary" Clark, 78, of Rockville, was a gunner's mate aboard the light cruiser USS Honolulu, and his gun crew downed a Japanese plane during the attack.
The United States "went from peacetime to wartime in seconds, and boys became men in that time," Mr. Clark said. "I never talked much about the war. World War II was justified, but war is always a monument to man's stupidity."
The Pearl Harbor Survivors' motto, "Remember Pearl Harbor -- Keep America Alert," reflects that feeling, Mr. Clark said. "The Sons and Daughters motto is 'Lest We Forget,' " he said.
Following his father
So impressed was young Robert Clark with what his father told him about his naval career from Pearl Harbor until he was severely wounded at Leyte Gulf in October 1944, that studying the Pacific campaign and the Honolulu's part in every major operation became his avocation.
zTC "I think I know it as well as anyone who wasn't there," said Mr. Clark, chief of the customer services staff for the federal court system. "The human factor and the response to the sheer terror of deadly combat fascinates me. I want everyone to be proud of what their parents did."
Like the parent group, Sons and Daughters will be a firm voice for a strong and alert defense, he said.
Founded in Florida in 1972, the Sons and Daughters organization remained a loose federation of individual members until 1988, when a chapter system was organized.
Those eligible are the children or stepchildren of service men and women who were serving on the island of Oahu or on a vessel within three miles offshore at the time of the Japanese attack. As direct descendants, grandchildren also can join, adding another generation to the Pearl Harbor legacy.
