Pensacola, FL – Pensacola’s Pearl Harbor Survivors and local authors Billie and Robert Nicholson will be honored by the National Naval Aviation Museum and the City of Pensacola with a special program to be held at the Museum next Saturday, January 17, 2015 at 10:00 am.
Pearl Harbor Survivor Tributes
The program will include tributes and presentations by Lt Gen Duane D. Thiessen, USMC (Ret), President and CEO of the Museum, Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward, Pensacola NAS Commanding Officer Capt. Keith Hoskins, USN, and WCOA 1340 Talk Radio Host Don Parker.
As part of the Museum’s Discovery Saturday series, this much anticipated event, Remembering Pearl Harbor, the Day and Its Heroes, will feature the stories and eyewitness accounts of the actual morning of the attack by Pensacola’s remaining Pearl Harbor Survivors, William Braddock, Cass Phillips, Frank Emond and Jay Carraway. Recently deceased Pearl Harbor Survivors Jim Landis and George Mills will be honored posthumously.
Selected excerpts from the Nicholson’s book, Pearl Harbor Honor Flight: One Last Goodbye, will be read by Pensacola Honor Scouts from Boy Scout Troop 628 and Venture Crew 628 together with the Pearl Harbor Survivors. “Since most of the survivors are now in their mid ’90’s, events like this one where our young people can actually meet these famous World War II heroes in person is a piece of history just by itself.”, says author Billie Nicholson.
Pearl Harbor Survivor Memorabilia
Immediately following the program, Museum Curator Dina Linn will give a tour of the Pearl Harbor memorabilia, and both the Pearl Harbor Survivors and the authors will be available to sign books. Pearl Harbor Honor Flight: One Last Goodbye by Billie and Robert Nicholson may be purchased the day of the event in the Flight Deck Store located in the Museum. The Cubi Bar Café, also located in the Museum, will be open for lunch following the program. “Taps” will be played by Scotty Mills.
Families are welcome to attend the FREE event which begins at 10:00 am at the National Naval Aviation Museum located at 1750 Radford Boulevard, Pensacola, FL 32506 at NAS Pensacola. For directions www.navalaviationmuseum.org
When 90-year-old George Mills met Holly Shelton at a Yoga class she was teaching at the Haven assisted living, they became fast friends. In time George revealed his participation in the attack on Pearl Harbor and the frustration he felt as he helplessly watched the attack. He expressed a desire to make one last trip to Pearl to pay his respects to all his brothers in arms that had made the ultimate sacrifice that day and throughout the war – to say one last goodbye.
Holly was determined to make this happen for George and the more she thought about it, she began wondering if there were others that might appreciate making this trip. That’s when George told her about the Pearl Harbor Survivor’s Association, Chapter 138, in Pensacola. She put out the word about her idea whenever she spoke to people and soon a group of interested folks began to gather. Bill Phillips, USAF, (Ret.) signed on as co-organizer, since he had connections in Hawaii from his recent assignments there.
Our friend Charlie Crumpton, then president of the Wide Angle Photo Club telephoned us and told us about the project, “She needs ya’ll ‘s help,” he said. When Holly arranged a meeting with the Survivors we went, too. They enthusiastically embraced the idea and the project began.
Photo by Rusty Buggy Enterprises
The plan was to engage the community in support of the trip. We began gathering information to share with them. Our first task was to create a website with videos of our National Heroes, information about the trip and set up a way to receive donations on line. Http://PearlHarborHonorFlight.com has become a record of not only the living survivor’s stories but also those recorded by some of the other members of the original 80 plus chapter members, and a storyline of all the fund raising events and the trip that followed.
To make a long story short, we made connections with Gary Sinese, the spokes-person for American Airlines’ Air Compassion for Veterans, who made flight arrangements for the survivors, caregivers, and a documentary team. The Escambia and Santa Rosa communities came together making contributions to cover the remaining expenses for the trip. Everyone on the team was a volunteer. They all wanted to be able to say “Thank You” to our Pearl Harbor Survivors for their service and sacrifices and to be a part of helping an elderly veteran say “One Last Goodbye” to his comrades who died that day so long ago.
Photo by Rusty Buggy Enterprises
The book, “Pearl Harbor Honor Flight: One Last Goodbye,” is a compilation of this fund raising project and subsequent trip. We are honored to have given our time, talents and support to this project. Since it’s publication, our efforts have been focused on getting the word out. Not so much for our benefit, but rather to share the stories of our local Pearl Harbor Survivors, our National Treasures, and to stir an interest in the history of the Pearl Harbor and World War II era among young and old. Many of us don’t know what we don’t know about this time and we should – if for no other reason, to avoid repeating it.
To help build and refresh memories about the Pearl Harbor attack, a presentation at the Pensacola Barnes & Noble store at the Pearl Harbor Day Book Fair was held on December 6th, 2014. Three local Pearl Harbor Survivors: Bill Braddock, Cass Phillips, and Frank Emond along with authors Billie and Robert Nicholson shared stories from the book, “Pearl Harbor Honor Flight: One Last Goodbye.” Students from Tate High School, Newpoint Pensacola Academy and Boy Scout Troops 603 and 438 participated.
Photo by Rusty Buggy Enterprises
Organized and directed by Dianna Roberts of CBTR, Inc., this program benefited the Reading is Fundamental Program. RIF, by the way, is a literacy group, whose federal support was eliminated in 2011. Their mandate is to share new books with school age children to encourage reading as well as instill a reverence for books and their value. The Pensacola Chapter of Reading is Fundamental, directed by retired school teachers, Beverly Barberi and Elaine Sites, is the most active chapter in the state of Florida. They distributed over $8,000 worth of books to under-priveleged schools in Escambia County last year. Additional book fairs are scheduled at Barnes & Noble throughout the year.
Does your family have military veterans? Begin a conversation with them with a thank you. Maybe they’ll tell you the rest of the story …
Pensacola Cordova Rotary, Rotary E-Club of the Southeast USA & Caribbean, and Combined Rotary Clubs of Greater Pensacola are sponsoring a Rotary Tree of Remembrance at Cordova Mall. Beneficiaries include Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart, Gulf Coast Kid’s House, Simon Youth Foundation, ARC Gateway, Rotary’s Camp Florida and Covenant Hospice.
A big hit with holiday shoppers and out of town visitors alike, this annual community giving project invites shoppers to make a donation and place yellow ribbons on the Tree in honor or remembrance of a loved one. The popular tree is on display at the Dillard’s entrance of Cordova Mall, located at 5100 N. 9th Avenue in Pensacola, FL. Nearly $6,000 has been collected at this posting.
Tree of Remembrance Opening Ceremony December 7, 2014
This year, the Rotary Tree of Remembrance project kicked off on Sunday, December 7, 2014, with a special program held in the Cordova Mall in conjunction with Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Special guests included Bill Braddock, Cass Phillips and Frank Edmond, all local World War II Pearl Harbor Survivors of our Greatest Generation.
Photo by Rusty Buggy Enterprises
Other guests included Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward, Pensacola Cordova Rotary President, Dr. Carl Backman, and local Pearl Harbor historians, Billie and Robert Nicholson, authors of Pearl Harbor Honor Flight: One Last Goodbye. Escambia County’s Fire Rescue Color Guard trooped the colors and holiday music was provided by the Sacred Heart Singers
Tree of Remembrance Closing Ceremony December 28, 2014
To conclude this year’s 2nd Annual Rotary Tree of Remembrance project, a non-denominational service was held on Sunday, Dec. 28, at 3 p.m. at the Tree. This year the final figure for donations was $7,001.00. Following the service, checks were presented to the charities.
photo by Rusty Buggy Enterprises
Rotary members will then gather the ribbons and, during the flag retirement ceremonies on Flag Day, local Boy Scouts will place them on a bed of embers.
As part of the closing ceremony, Dianna Roberts of CBTR, Inc. and Billie and Robert Nicholson of Rusty Buggy Enterprises received Vocational Service Awards for assistance promoting this event.
Photo by Rusty Buggy Enterprises
Photo by Rusty Buggy Enterprises
Rotary Clubs of Pensacola Thank the Community for their Support of the Charities Represented by the 2014 Tree of Remembrance.
Pensacola Military Authors provided a waffle brunch to feed Veterans following the 2014 Veterans Day Parade along with book signings featuring some of our local military writers.
Student Ambassadors from the Newpoint Pensacola Academy served brunch to over 500 veterans. Thanks to Robert Nicholson and Shauna Taylor for preparing 505 waffles, Polina, Vlad and Igor Mokrenko for preparing the hash browns with sausage and Dianna Roberts of CBTR for organizing the event in collaboration with Billie and Robert Nicholson of Rusty Buggy Enterprises and Jim Sanborne of Cumulus Radio.
In addition, under our tents were the Pensacola Young Marines and the Escambia Chapter of Reading is Fundamental, a children’s literacy program.
Pearl Harbor Veterans Feted
Special guests included Pearl Harbor Survivor, Frank Emond, who we learned has a grand son who teaches world culture to some of the students helping out at the food kiosk. In addition, Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima survivor, William Braddock was thrilled to keep company with student escorts as they toured the tents following the parade. He told his student ambassadors with a grin, “My favorite part in Pearl Harbor Honor Flight: One Last Goodbye is page 20 – my story, and where my sister comments about how my mother prayed for me every day.”
Pensacola Launches Pearl Harbor Survivors Book Tour
Pensacola, FL – On Thursday, May 8, 2014, master photographers Billie and Robert Nicholson’s new book, Pearl Harbor Honor Flight: One Last Goodbye, will go on the shelves for the first time in Pensacola bookstores.
Kicking off a four-month book tour for this heartwarming photo documentary, also on May 8, the authors will be hosted by April Stokes, owner of Turn the Page Books at a premiere book launch reception and book signing at her bookstore located at 9105 Gulf Beach Hwy in Pensacola. The reception begins at 5:30 pm with a presentation by the authors at 6:30 pm.
The 80-page premium color first edition book tells the touching story of a community coming together to make an elderly veteran’s dream come true to return to Pearl Harbor and say “one last goodbye” to his friends and comrades who were with him that day so long ago on December 7, 1941.
Filled with photos by the Nicholsons of the Pearl Harbor survivors recent return to Pearl Harbor and brilliantly interspersed with historic pictures and eyewitness accounts of the attack, the book pays homage to these military veterans of the Greatest Generation for their extraordinary courage and personal sacrifice. Says author Robert Nicholson, “the book was designed as a keepsake case bound hardcover book and lets the reader visually experience the enduring triumph of the human spirit that made our country great.”
Author Billie Nicholson calls Stokes’ bookstore “just perfect for the launch of a historic event book of this kind with a ‘Little Shop Around the Corner’ feeling of nostalgia, a real bookstore of the time”.
Several of the remaining Pearl Harbor survivors who are now in their 90’s still live in the Pensacola area and are slated to attend the reception and book signing on May 8. For those lucky enough to live in the Pensacola area, don’t miss this opportunity to be a part of a piece of history.
