OREGON SET TO HIRE USF’S TAGGART AS NEW COACH SPORTS • PAGE 10A
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 114
ONE DOLLAR
75 YEARS LATER
PEARL HARBOR VETERANS
HONORED AND REMEMBERED
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Pearl Harbor survivor Spurgeon D. Keeth tosses a remembrance wreath into the Necanicum River during a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony today in Seaside.
Seaside commemorates
75th anniversary of
Pearl Harbor attack
Children who
lived through
attack remember
By LYRA FONTAINE
The Daily Astorian
Friends in their 80s stay in touch
S
EASIDE — V eterans, dignitaries, residents and
Pearl Harbor survivor Spurgeon D. Keeth gathered
this morning at the Seaside Civic and Convention
Center to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Jap-
anese attack on Pearl Harbor .
The Dec. 7, 1941 attack in Hawaii marked the entry
of the United States into World War II. Seaside residents
have gathered each year for more than 10 years to honor
and remember victims. This year, Seaside resident and
Pearl Harbor survivor Bill Thomas was unable to make
the ceremony, but was honored in a written statement
from state Sen. Betsy Johnson.
“Bill was only 20 when the world turned upside
down,” Johnson wrote. “He was tested in ways many of
us never are. These young men and women understand
that war is not a video game … It’s a pleasure and honor
to say thank you to Bill Thomas.”
Keeth, who was stationed at the U.S. Army’s Schof-
ield Barracks on Oahu during the attack, was in the audi-
ence. The Seaside American Legion Auxiliary presented
Keeth with an afghan. At the end of the ceremony, he
threw a wreath into the Necanicum River from the Pearl
Harbor Memorial Bridge.
Seaside High School student Kayla Vowels led the
crowd in singing the national anthem and “God Bless
America” at the ceremony, sponsored by the Seaside
American Legion. Seaside City Councilor Randy Frank
See SEASIDE, Page 7A
By AUDREY MCAVOY
Associated Press
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Color Guard from Camp Rilea prepare to present the col-
ors during a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day ceremony
today in Seaside.
HONOLULU — In some ways, it could be any
class photo from the 1940s. The sepia-toned image
shows 30 fi fth-graders — 26 girls and four boys — at
Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Waikiki. Most
are smiling, some look stern. A few have no shoes.
Yet this picture is different in one striking way:
Each child is holding a bag containing a gas mask, a
sign of how war had suddenly broke apart the routines
of their adolescence on Dec. 7, 1941.
Three of the students, now in their mid-80s and all
friends who have kept in touch over the years, refl ected
recently on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 75
years ago and the mark it left on their childhoods.
Joan Martin Rodby remembered the carefree walks
to school, and her family building an air raid shelter in
their yard. Florence Seto, who is Japanese-American,
recalled sharing ice cream with Rodby, and being wor-
ried that her family would be taken away.
Emma Veary reminisced about her days singing,
and her family covering the windows at night so Jap-
anese pilots couldn’t use the light of homes to guide
them.
See CHILDREN, Page 7A
From brownfi eld
State agency’s shortcomings put
affordable housing inventory at risk to city’s benefi t
Leadership lacking,
state audit fi nds
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon Housing and
Community Services has failed to pro-
vide adequate leadership in addressing
the state’s housing crisis, according to
an audit released Tuesday by the Secre-
tary of State’s Offi ce.
The agency’s role is to preserve
affordable housing by administering an
IRS tax credit program that provides
one of the largest sources of funding
for affordable housing in the state. The
agency also provides loans and grants
Community seeks grant
to help reuse properties
to private and nonprofi t housing devel-
opers who can use the money to main-
tain affordable housing.
The audit found that the
agency has placed existing afford-
able housing inventory at risk
as a result of inadequate data tracking,
poor communication with employees
and housing partners and a lack of stra-
tegic planning.
“We can’t help address Oregon’s
housing crisis if we lose existing afford-
able housing,” Secretary of State Jeanne
Atkins said in a statement . “The loss of
even a single rental unit could mean
one or more Oregon families may not
be able to fi nd a home.”
See HOUSING, Page 5A
By LUKE WHITTAKER
EO Media Group
LONG BEACH, Wash. — The rusty remnants
of a former gas station leading into downtown Long
Beach, a burnt building in the center of Raymond, a
historic commercial building crumbling on the main
corner of Ilwaco.
Community eyesores across Pacifi c County
could eventually become sites of reuse and revital-
ization, pending the approval of a $600,000 grant
that would fund initial phases of cleanup for sev-
eral sites across the county. Pacifi c County — along
Jeanne Atkins
See BROWNFIELDS, Page 5A