Lawson Burgfield, left, a U.S. Navy veteran, and Rick Sparks, a U.S. Air Force veteran, stand with a wreath at the World War I Doughboy statue in Cape Girardeau County Courthouse Square in Jackson on Wednesday, Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. ...
Lawson Burgfield, left, a U.S. Navy veteran, and Rick Sparks, a U.S. Air Force veteran, stand with a wreath at the World War I Doughboy statue in Cape Girardeau County Courthouse Square in Jackson on Wednesday, Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Sparks, commander of Altenthal-Joerns American Legion Post 158, told more than 20 attendees the dead are honored in the solemn wreath-laying ceremony. "We have not forgotten, nor will we," said Sparks, who served as an aircraft mechanic during the Vietnam era. Taps were also played at the afternoon event. A total of 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 wounded in the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, leading directly to America's entry into World War II in 1941.Jeff Long
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