SAN DIEGO _ The San Diego chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, maybe the last one still operating in the United States, held its final meeting Saturday, a bow to the relentless march of time. What had once been a group with 586 men now has seven.
They will socialize when they can, and chapter President Stuart Hedley, a fixture at veterans events for decades, plans to continue speaking at schools and appearing at parades and memorial gatherings. But their official business _ monthly meetings, financial reports, officer elections _ is finished.
"It's certainly the end of an era," said Hedley, who turns 98 next month, "and it leaves me a little heartbroken."
Hedley said the group, which at its peak was believed to be the largest chapter in the nation, can't continue because it needs at least two survivors to serve on the board. After Jack Evans, the vice president, died in February at age 95, no one else was ambulatory enough to take his place.
"There's no way around it," Hedley said. "We are a dying organization."
About 50,000 American service members were on Oahu on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when waves of Japanese airplanes arrived from aircraft carriers offshore and decimated the Pacific Fleet in a surprise attack that shoved the United States into World War II.
About 2,400 Americans were killed and another 1,200 injured. More than 30 ships and hundreds of airplanes were destroyed or damaged.
Those who survived _ no one knows how many there are _ picked themselves up, helped win the war and got on with their lives in a way that led them to be called the Greatest Generation. They are all pushing the century mark now. The only other San Diego survivor able to attend Saturday's meeting, Clayton Schenkelberg, will be 102 next month.
He and Hedley were among about 100 people who gathered in an auditorium at a Mormon church in La Mesa Saturday for the final meeting, which was scheduled to coincide with the chapter's founding 56 Septembers ago.
"You taught us the definition of bravery by your actions that day long ago, and by the way you have lived your lives since," said Scott Herrod, a church official. "You demonstrated courage, and what it means to fulfill your commitments."
The meeting drew relatives, friends and admirers of the survivors, many of them dressed in Hawaiian shirts or dresses and donning leis. Lunch was Hawaiian, too, and singers entertained with songs from the South Pacific, as well as patriotic numbers and a medley of 1940s hits.
When lunch was over, the chapter board held what Hedley called "its shortest meeting ever." He said prayer, called roll and expressed regret that it had come to this.
Then he tapped a gavel on the table and said, "We are done."
