Three World War II veterans and the grandson of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt will join in a Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 7, on board the Battleship USS Iowa.
The event will take place from 10:30 a.m. to noon and is free to the public. The ship, 250 S. Harbor Blvd., is docked in San Pedro, and parking — free for the first hour and $2 an hour after that — is adjacent to the World War II-era vessel.
H. Delano Roosevelt, the former president’s grandson and CEO of the National Council of US-Arab Relations, will be the event’s keynote speaking, sharing insights into the legacy and courage of the “Greatest Generation” from the perspective of his family.
World War II veteran Lloyd Glick — a 101-year-old USS Iowa volunteer — will provide a historical overview of Pearl Harbor, which launched America’s involvement in World War II. Glick served more than two years aboard the USS North Carolina during the war, taking part in 12 major battles in the Pacific. He played trumpet in the ship’s band and has penned an autobiography, “From Bugle Boy to Battleship.”
The other two WWII veterans who will be on hand are:
Patrick Zilliacus, a Navy submariner with five major battle tours, sinking 17 enemy ships and a radar station. He met FDR in the White House and his father was a minister from Finland. He has written three books in the last year and a half.
Billy Hall, a Marine who is believed to be the last living veteran to enlist before World War II, and saw combat action in WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He made the amphibious landing on Guadalcanal at 16 years old and participated in 150 dive bomb and torpedo bomb missions over Guadalcanal; Pelilu, Munda; Bougainville; and the South Pacific.
Pearl Harbor survivors, veterans and others come together each year on Dec. 7 to remember the 2,403 service members and civilians who were killed during the Japanese attack on in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941. Another 1,178 people were injured in the attack, which also sank two U.S. Navy battleships — the USS Arizona and the USS Utah — and destroyed 188 aircraft.
On Aug. 23, 1994, the United States Congress designated Dec. 7 as National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
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Commemorating the valor and sacrifice of those who served at Pearl Harbor, the event onboard the USS Iowa — which was commissioned in 1943 — will incorporate a patriotic and nostalgic atmosphere that captures the “music that won the war” through performances by the 300th Army Band Brass Quintet, actor/singer Caroline Torrez and The Tribute Trio led by Bobbi Stamm.
The USS Iowa, which was brought to San Pedro’s waterfront in 2012 as a floating museum, is the namesake of the 29th state of the United States and the last class of battleships in the world. The ship was built to be heavily armored and fast to go up against the Axis alliance — Germany, Italy and Japan — in World War II. The ship also served in the Korean War and the Cold War, earning 11 battle stars in its long active-duty history.
Owned and operated by the nonprofit Pacific Battleship Center, the Iowa is transitioning to national museum status as the National Museum of the Surface Navy at the Battleship IOWA, which is set to open on the 250th birthday of the U.S. Navy in 2025.
H. Delano Roosevelt, meanwhile, was born in Los Angeles and is the grandson of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and the son of James Roosevelt, FDR’s first-born son. He is also a descendant of President Theodore Roosevelt.
He served as the president and CEO of the U.S.-Saudi Business Council from 2019 to 2022. Prior to joining the business council, he was the director of business development for the Reza Investment Group in Saudi Arabia and is a cofounder of Friends of Saudi Arabia.
Roosevelt has been a member and the former chairman of the Middle East Council of American Chambers of Commerce, an executive board member of the American Mission Hospital in Bahrain, first vice president of the Bahrain American Chamber of Commerce, a board member of the FDR Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, and board member of the American Business Group of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia.
He previously headed Roosevelt Global Partners and was formerly a member of the Long Beach City Council, where he served in such positions as chair of the Federal Legislation and Environmental Affairs Committee and vice chair of the Public Safety Committee. Early in his career, he worked at Southern California Edison and the Boeing Sea Launch Program as director of Governmental Relations.