Jim Laud Sr. has been planning the annual National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Memorial service in Highland for years.
As director for the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors — Northern Indiana Chapter, he for years has brought together those who were there Dec. 7, 1941, the day the Japanese launched the attack on American soil, and the children of those servicemen who survived the horrific attack.
The event will continue this year, despite the pandemic, after Laud secured a mitigation plan for the gathering that received a stamp of approval from the Lake County Health Department. The remembrance takes place at 11:55 a.m. Monday, the time the attack began in the Central Time Zone in 1941, under the gazebo at Main Square Park in Highland.
Laud said Gov. Eric Holcomb’s executive order regarding the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, requires an approved plan for gatherings of 50 or more. The event usually draws at least 50 people, so Laud said he did not want to take any chances.
“There is no way of knowing how many people will show up. Most of them are older. There had been an increase, too, in the number of veterans who attend. I just wanted to be prepared and take that step for precaution so people who do come feel safe. We are taking everyone who attends into consideration,” Laud said.
The ceremony will be moving back outside this year after moving indoors for the first time in 2019.
“The few people I talked to felt more comfortable having it outdoors,” Laud said. Those attending will have their temperatures checked and will be required to wear masks and social distance. Laud said anyone who is not feeling well or experiencing any symptoms should stay home. Members of vulnerable populations are asked to stay home for their own protection.
Laud said the ceremony has been streamlined this year to keep the gathering shorter. There will be an invocation and a short presentation. The Knights of Columbus will lower the flag and the Honor Guard from the Department of Defense will offer the final salute. The event will close with taps. There will be no presentation of wreaths this year.
“These guys made sacrifices. People need to know they fought for the liberty we enjoy today,” Laud said. He took the mantel of honoring the soldiers who lived and died that day after his own father, Walter Laub, who was in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Sacramento during the war, died in 1985.
“I regret not knowing then what I know now. I didn’t really care about it back then when I was younger. I wish I was able to put more into it and be more receptive at a younger age so I could know more of my father’s story,” Laud said.
Now he ensures the legacy of those who were there that day, like his father, are not forgotten.
“It’s just something I am drawn to,” Laud said.
Merri Loker, of Valparaiso, said her father, U.S. Army Sgt. Merle Berdine, was at Pearl Harbor the day the bombs fell. She and her husband, Mike Loker, mark the remembrance every year. Berdine was a longtime Hammond resident who spent his last five years with the Lokers in Valparaiso. He was 92 when he died in 2011.
“(It is) important because my dad and thousands of others were defending our country. They were there (on) a very important day. All of their lives were at stake. They were just there for a big part of history,” Merri Loker said.
Mike Loker said Berdine never really talked about his time at Pearl Harbor while he was a younger man. He began sharing some of the stories of his time in the service about 10 years before his death in 2011 at the age of 92.
“He didn’t discuss a lot with family members,” Merri Loker said. As a child, she knew he was there and recalled being told by Berdine how he was outside of the mess hall having a cup of coffee when the planes arrived. Within seconds of seeing the planes, a bomb hit the mess hall and it was destroyed. He was not injured in the blast.
Berdine kept his stories close to the vest and never wanted to return to the island. The Lokers traveled to Hawaii in 2016 for the 75th Pearl Harbor Day anniversary memorial. They plan to return next year for the 80th anniversary.
When in Honolulu in 2016, the couple received a tour of Hickam Air Force Base and were given more information about Berdine’s service from his military records. Merri Loker said her father was tasked with recovering bodies, and body parts, from the harbor’s waters. She said it shed light on his unwillingness to share.
Berdine was always proud of his service, sporting his American flag pin on his lapel, Pearl Harbor remembrance stickers on his car, and his survivor’s cap, the Lokers said.
“He was very proud to have been in the Army, very proud of being an American,” Mike Loker said.
Merri Loker said it means so much that her father and generations of individuals including the military now have made the sacrifice to serve and ensure America remains free.
“(His service) makes me feel proud — proud of him, proud to be an American,” Merri Loker said.
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
