Teen travels from Texas to meet local Pearl Harbor survivor
Saturday marks the 78th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, and while many of us are too young to remember that day, a teen from Texas is showing us how the next generation can honor the greatest generation.
Pearl Harbor Day is a day to remember the tragedy that launched the U.S. into World War Two. It's a history 15-year-old Brooke Schocke doesn't want people to lose.
“I believe that we all should know where we came from so that we don't make the same mistakes in history,” Schocke said.
She feels so strongly about it she flew all the way from Texas to attend a remembrance ceremony in Colorado Springs. The reason for her trip is that Colorado Springs is home to one of the last living survivors of the U.S.S. Arizona.
Donald Stratton was badly burned in the December 7th attack. The Vice President of the Colorado Springs Navy League Council, retired Navy Commander Art Cyphers, explained that Stratton wouldn't let those burns stop him from serving.
“The Navy finally released him from active duty,” Cyphers said. “This was during the war. He said ‘oh no, I'm going back in the Navy, we've got work to do.’”
Brooke Schocke first learned about Stratton when she visited the memorial in Hawaii. She said she picked up a picture of him in the gift shop.
She was only 11, but she knew she wanted to meet a survivor. Last year she got the chance at the Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum’s remembrance ceremony.
“I met him, I completely broke down,” she said. “It was the most amazing thing, the best moment of my life.”
Stratton even gave her pieces of the U.S.S. Arizona. She wears them proudly in a necklace.
“Just as a reminder of everything that they did for us, and everything that they went through,” she said.
Now Schocke, a sophomore in high school, has plans to become a historian and also start a foundation to help veterans. It’s her way of honoring the men and women who sacrificed for our country.
“I may not be able to bring them back to life, but I can preserve their memory,” she said. “I can preserve their stories, and I can make the survivors’ lives easier.”
She's starting by meeting living figures of history like Stratton.
Unfortunately, Stratton wasn't at Friday's ceremony at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. The organizers say he's recovering from pneumonia.
The good news is Schocke is in contact with his family. She said she plans to see Stratton at another remembrance event on Pearl Harbor Day Saturday.
