(UPDATE: the start time has been changed to 4:45 p.m.)
(December 6, 2016) — Flags at Fresno State will post at half-staff Wed. Dec. 7, and will be retrieved during the “Pearl Harbor 75th Anniversary Moment-of-Silence Tribute” from 4:45 – 5 p.m. at the Veterans Monument Flag Station (Thomas Building).
The University’s Air Force ROTC Detachment 35 will conduct a flag-retreat ceremony and University President Joseph I. Castro will call for a moment of silence. He will be joined by Timothy Ryan, president of the Associated Students, Inc. (student body) and Lt. Col. Kenneth Bourque, AFROTC commander.
Fresno State music major Ryan Vance will perform the National Anthem, “Taps” and “Retreat-To The Colors.”
Nearby the tribute is the University’s U.S. Submarine Memorial. Sixty-five tulip trees stand in commemoration of the crews of lost U.S. submarines on the Maple Mall, south of the Satellite Student Union, In 2002, Fresno State was the first university in the nation to create a memorial honoring lost submarines and crew members. Fifty-four tulip trees were planted along the Maple Mall honoring 52 U.S. submarines and 3,505 men who were lost in World War II and two other submarines and 228 men lost since 1945. Nine more trees were later added: in 2003, tribute was paid to the first five American submarines lost in the 20th century; and in 2004 the university dedicated six tulip trees to honor six lost submarines and crew members.
The ceremony is free and open to the public.
World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, home of the USS Arizona Memorial. (Photo courtesy of Lawrence Salinas of Fresno State who won “Best of Show” at the Stanislaus County Fair with this photo. )
