Pearl Harbor survivors gather in Des Plaines

Ed Block's face filled with emotion Sunday as he sat in a wheelchair at Oakton Place in Des Plaines.

During ceremonies commemorating another Sunday in 1941, one that President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a "date which will live in infamy," Block was a living reminder not only of what happened that day in Pearl Harbor, but of the nearly four-year struggle that followed it.

One of three Pearl Harbor survivors in the room - joining Joe Triolo of Waukegan from the USS Tangier, and Lyle Hancock of Wheeling from the Navy Yard Dispensary - Block was a barber on the USS Medusa when the Japanese attacked.

Now 96, he recalled the events Sunday as he saw them from the Navy repair ship.

"I looked through the (ship's) porthole. The bombing was going off at Ford Island," he said. "It was at the start of the war."

He later served as a barber on the USS Johnston, a destroyer that was sunk in one of the fiercest battles in the Philippines, off Samar Island. For that battle, he earned a Purple Heart, after receiving severe head, leg and shoulder injuries that hospitalized him for 14 months.

"I stepped into the water. That's how far down the ship was in the ocean," he recalled.

Block, who now lives in West suburban Countryside, returned home after the war to work as a barber in Lyons.

What he survived at Pearl Harbor helped shape an American military that went on to win the war.

"They were young men and women, some still teenagers. On the first anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, they were either in training to be warriors or they were already fighting in places that had yet to become part of the American lexicon," such as the Coral Sea, Midway and Guadalcanal, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Kertreck V. Brooks said during Sunday's ceremony.

"The echoes of courage, strength and commitment resonating from the wreckage on that December morning in 1941 can still be heard today."

The ceremony featured a wreath presentation, a traditional Navy 2-bell ceremony, a 3-volley salute and the playing of taps.

Bob Miller, of Chapter One of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, and the son of survivor Clarence Miller, served as master of ceremonies. Chapter One was disbanded recently, but Miller said the sons and daughters of Pearl Harbor survivors still keep in touch.

"For sure we'll do this again next year at this time," he said.

After the ceremony, guests could also view a display with pictures and memorabilia, as well as models of ships built by Des Plaines resident Art Carlson. One of them is a re-creation of the USS Hammann, which was sunk during the Battle of Midway.

Wanda Hagerty of Wadsworth, daughter of a Pearl Harbor survivor, was among those in attendance. She expressed her appreciation for the service of her father and those who served.

"It just makes me so grateful for all the sailors and everybody who has helped in the wars," she said.