KEYPORT – At the end of the 22nd annual Pearl Harbor Remembrance Ceremony at Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Capt. Francis Spencer III, commanding officer for the center, shook hands with five servicemen who had been at Pearl Harbor on that fateful day.

The five were among a couple hundred people who sat in the sea-green chairs at Jack Murdock Auditorium for the ceremony. They listened to speeches and to musical performances by Navy Band Northwest and The Keyport Singers.

“Dec. 7, 1941, was in many ways the day that the modern U.S. Navy was born,” Spencer said, addressing the audience.

While the Japanese had severely damaged the U.S. battleship fleet, other important naval assets were not destroyed.

“Our submarines, our aircraft carriers and our shore installations – those platforms made up the trinity that was instrumental in winning the Pacific war. Our submarines went from a defensive posture with limited range to being our greatest asymmetrical advantage over the axis. The ‘silent service’ took the battle to the enemy, sinking more enemy tonnage than any other type of vessel, cutting off enemy supply lines and exhausting the fighting strength of our adversaries,” Spencer said.

“In June, during the Battle of Midway, naval aviation turned the tide of the war and put our nation on the offensive.”

Shore installations such as Keyport and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard gave the U.S. resiliency, he said, in a war of attrition where industrial might would make the difference between stalemate and victory.

After four years, the “Greatest Generation” came home, Spencer said.

“Those who served in World War II understood that this country is safer and more secure when others are free. They also understood, then, that vigilance and deterrence could never take a holiday. Threats come at what can seem the most peaceful of times in what seem the most peaceful of places.”

Hawaii prior to the attack was an idyllic spot for service members, said Commander Dustin Demorest with NUWC, Division Keyport.

Aircraft at Hickam Field had been tightly grouped on the ground the day of the attack.

“Intelligence had indicated sabotage was our most likely vulnerability,” Spencer explained, “grouping them made the (aircraft) formations easier to guard. We hadn’t fully considered how vulnerable these aircraft were to aerial attack.”

All eight battleships were damaged and four of them sunk, hundreds of aircraft were damaged or destroyed, and 2,403 Americans were killed.

“After the attack on Pearl Harbor the U.S. Pacific fleet was devastated, but that certainly wasn’t the end. The enemy had made many mistakes,” Spencer said.

First among those mistakes, Demorest said, was that the Japanese left U.S. submarine facilities untouched.

“This mistake would cost them dearly,” Demorest said. “At the end of the war, 65 percent of Japanese tonnage sunk was attributed to U.S. Navy submarines with torpedoes tested right here in Keyport. Secondly, both U.S. aircraft carriers homeported in Hawaii were at sea that day. Thankfully, they were spared from attack.

“Next, we had enough fuel stored at nearby tank farms at Hospital Point and behind the submarine base to keep the fleet underway for about five years. The enemy didn’t target these valuable reserves and all of it remained intact. finally the shipyard was not hit and we were able to put most of the damaged ships back into action,” Demorest said.

Witnesses to the attack

Five survivors of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor attended the 22nd remembrance and listened to Spencer and Demorest’s speeches.

The attending survivors were:

• Roy Carter, who was serving aboard the USS Oklahoma when the attack occurred. Carter’s story of his experience during and after the Pearl Harbor attack are now on record and archived with the Naval History and Heritage Command, to forever be a part of America’s Navy history.

• Rocky Hoffman, Marine Corps Air Station Ewa. Hoffman was a sergeant in the Marine Corps, stationed near Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He was credited with shooting down an enemy plane that day, and his leadership of fellow Marines during the attack earned him an officer’s commission just a few weeks later.

• Frank Mattausch, Wheeler Army Airfield. Mattausch was stationed at the base which was actually bombed before the invading planes reached the ships at Pearl Harbor, and witnessed what is believed to be the first bomb dropped on Hawaii that day. He and another soldier manned a .50 caliber machine gun and shot down a Japanese aircraft.

• Bob Rains, USS Pennsylvania. Rains was on his dry-docked battleship on Dec. 7, 1941, and the Pennsylvania’s crew was one of the first in the harbor to open fire on the attacking planes.

• Lloyd Valnes, USS California. Valnes manned a small boat that helped pick up fellow sailors who’d jumped or fallen into the water around his stricken battleship. The California was one of the battleships that came to Bremerton for repairs and then served through the rest of the war.