People all across the country are remembering the attack on Pearl Harbor. Wednesday marks 75 years since the attack. In Boise, there was also a ceremony to remember another battle that began just hours after Pearl Harbor, the Battle of Wake Island.
Roughly 500 United States Marines and another 1,100 civilians, many of whom worked for Boise-based Morrison-Knudsen, fought for two weeks to defend the island before surrendering to the Japanese.
"They gave them guns and here none of them had any military experience. They all just jumped in and did what they needed to do," Polli Buzzini said, whose father Pete Ingham was on Wake Island that day.
Pete was a contractor for Morrison-Knudsen and spent more than three years as a prisoner of war by the Japanese.
"He didn't really speak of it much," Buzzini said.
Wednesday, the United States Marine Corp ensured those men and women like Pete would not be forgotten. They held a ceremony at the Wake Island Memorial located in Boise's Veterans Memorial Park.
The ceremony included the playing of TAPS, bagpipes, and the placing of a wreath at the memorial.
"It means a lot, and it means a lot to my mom as far as people are remembering those guys that were there that really stepped in and had no really military background. They stepped in and did what they can," Buzzini said.
Although, ceremonies like Wednesdays may happen only once a year, Noah Barnes, who's great-grandfather was also a contractor, ensured none of them would ever be forgotten.
"If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't even know about Wake Island," Barnes said.
Barnes built the memorial in Boise as a part of his Eagle Scout project.
"I want people in the future to read it and remember what happened," Barnes said.
According to the United States Marine Corp the only other two memorials of Wake Island, which they know of, are in Bristow, Oklahoma and Wake Island.