This large collection of photographs is the "initial cull"... for a proposed book entitled "Pearls of Honor: Their Duty to Remember."

 

The concept of this book is an effort to provide future generations of Americans a look back at how the Survivors from the infamous 7 December, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, carried out their duty and oath to "Remember Pearl Harbor and Keep America Alert!"

 

"Remember Pearl Harbor" echoed across America soon after the attacks, and throughout World War II, and this slogan was painted, plastered and printed on everything from tie-clips, to matchbook covers, to coffee cups to giant block-long factory buildings.

 

"Remember Pearl Harbor" became the driving mantra for the greatest military effort ever seen in human history.

 

Sadly, as this "Senior Class of the Greatest Generation" passes on into history I, along with many other Americans wonder if the Survivors' admonitions have all been in vain. Survey after survey show many Americans have little-to-no grasp of basic American history.

 

Why is America different than every other nation on Earth?

 

Why did our Founding Fathers also warn about threats to our way of life?

 

Why is the following warning so profoundly true?

 

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster, and what has happened once in 6000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world." -- Daniel Webster

  

Dana Harbaugh is an Honorary Life Member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, and amateur photographer... In the year 2000, Dana stood in front of nearly one hundred Pearl Harbor Survivors, spouses and friends with right hand raised, and took the oath to Remember Pearl Harbor and Keep America Alert;... the official motto of the PHSA.

 

Over the next 12+ years, Dana attended numerous Survivor events including monthly meetings, state and national reunions, veteran events, memorial services including the 60th, 65th and 70th Pearl Harbor Anniversary Reunions on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.

 

Over those years, Dana has amassed more than 35,000 photos of the Pearl Harbor Survivors as they tirelessly carry out their solemn duty to Remember Pearl Harbor.

 

It is Dana's hope that he will someday publish a coffee table book entitled, "Pearls of Honor: Their Duty to Remember"... a photographic record of the Survivors of that "Day of Infamy" 7 December, 1941... and how they carried out that duty in those beautiful and colorful Hawaiian shirts, with solemnity, respect and at times, good-hearted fun.

 

Dana is also a US Navy veteran, and served from 1987 to 1993 as an enlisted Naval Aircrewman, flying aboard the S-3A Viking aircraft with ASW Squadron VS-38 and attached to the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-61).