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Pearl Harbor Day display planned at Grand Hotel

Minot Wreaths Across America will be setting up a display of the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day.

The display will be set up today in the main lobby of the Grand Hotel in Minot and remain until Sunday.

There will be informational materials provided about the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor along with photos of the four North Dakota sailors whose remains have been brought back to their hometowns for proper burial.

The four North Dakota sailors are:

Gunners Mate 1st Class Arthur Neuenschwander of Fessenden. His remains were returned to his hometown after 75-plus years. His remains arrived at Fargo’s Hector International Airport the evening of June 21, 2017. A public memorial service and a committal service was held on June 24, 2017.

Neuenschwander was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, which moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, by Japanese aircraft. The ship sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of many crewmen, including Neuenschwander. No single vessel at Pearl Harbor, with the exception of the USS Arizona, suffered as many fatalities, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Fireman 1st Class Lawrence H. Fecho of Willow City. He was killed in the attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. His remains were returned to his hometown of Willow City. A family service was held at the Nero Funeral Home in Bottineau on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017.

Fecho was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, which was at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft on Dec. 7, 1941. The Oklahoma took multiple torpedo hits and capsized quickly. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Fecho. No single vessel at Pearl Harbor, with the exception of the USS Arizona, suffered as many fatalities, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Radio Man 2nd Class Floyd Arthur Wells of Cavalier. His remains have been identified through DNA testing and were returned to his family for burial at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery, Mandan, Oct. 1, 2019.

Floyd Arthur Wells enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1938, a few years after graduating from high school at Fairdale in northeastern North Dakota. In December 1941, he was one of the five radio operators on the USS Arizona when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft that killed 1,177 crewmen. The battleship was struck by a bomb that penetrated magazine, which caused a cataclysmic explosion and ignited a fire. The ship burned for two days in the aftermath of the attack.

Fireman Second Class Albert Renner of Mandan. He was assigned to the battleship USS West Virginia, moored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, when the ship sustained multiple torpedo hits from Japanese airplanes during the infamous surprise attack at Pearl Harbor. The USS West Virginia was hit by two bombs and at least seven torpedoes during the attack and sank to the bottom of the harbor, according to the Naval History and Heritage Command. Albert Renner was killed along with 105 other crewmen, but many of their remains had never been identified.

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