MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The 82nd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor was recognized at the mast of the USS West Virginia on Oglebay Plaza, and another artifact from the ship was unveiled Thursday.
President of the West Virginia University student body in 1959 and the person instrumental in saving the mast of the ship and getting it back to Morgantown, Jack Bowman offered brief remarks and introduced the keynote speaker, Secretary of State and Republican gubernatorial candidate Mac Warner.
“Along with other patriots, I am filled with gratitude for the service of those who have maintained our freedom; it’s important that we always remember,” Bowman said.
Warner spoke about the need to be prepared as a country in front of the bell of the historic battleship and next to the mast while he recognized the life preserver gifted to the university by Ken and Randy Kendrick and Ken’s brother Rick.
“This mast, that bell, and this buoy are speaking to us today; what is their message?” Warner said. “If you want peace, prepare for war.”
While Warner cited the need for a strong national defense, leaders have to be willing to use it to deter bad actors around the world. Examples through history, including current hotspots were used to point out failed deterrence.
“Look to Ukraine or Israel, and you see deterrence has failed,” Warner said. “You see, for deterrence to be effective, you have to have that capability, but you have the will to use that force that you have.”
Warner took the crowd back to July 5, 1950 when the United States was the leading superpower following World War II. President Harry Truman attempted to stop the incursion into South Korea by soldiers from the north with Task Force Smith, but they were not deterred just five years after the peace treaties that ended World War II. But, Warner said the conflict that followed highlighted the stark difference between people who are free and those who are not by citing the contrast between the countries today.
“Just across the border in North Korea, abject poverty, squalor, and deprivation,” Warner said. “It’s the same ethic people, but two different outcomes, and the difference was that one was ready to defend freedoms.”
With swirling political division, mistrust in government and institutions Warner called on the crowd to recommit to ideals of our nation.
“I’m calling on us here gathered today to recommit ourselves to the American dream,” Warner said. “To what America stands for, to what that red, white, and blue stands for, it’s time for us to recommit and teach our youth about America.”
