World War II veterans in Sequim honored with flags

SEQUIM — More than 75 years later, their legacies live on.

Two Pearl Harbor veterans who call Sequim home received unexpected tributes in early January from U.S. Navy representatives.

Roy Carter and Bob Rains each received framed American flags that have been flown over the USS Arizona Memorial.

Wendy Miles, public affairs officer for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division-Keyport, had hoped to have Carter, Rains and Lloyd Valnes of Bremerton in attendance at an annual ceremony Dec. 7 in Keyport, the 75th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks, but all three were unable to attend.

Valnes, whose family members accepted a flag at the Keyport ceremony, died two days later.

Instead of waiting for next year’s ceremony, Miles, Tim Katona — president of the Navy League Bremerton-Olympic Peninsula Council — YN2 (yeoman) Kate Pope and YN1 (yeoman) Hogan Sternbeck made the trek to the Olympic Peninsula to talk with the Sequim veterans and bestow the flags.

Rains, who lives in a log cabin he helped build just west of Carlsborg, served on the USS Pennsylvania.

“I was a screamin’ seaman,” he said.

Rains stayed in the military for another 20 years after Pearl Harbor, then worked security for the Department of Defense as a security agent at Seattle’s Pier 91, a U.S. Navy fuel storage facility, for nearly another 20 years.

A Sequim resident since 1979, Rains said both of his sons served with the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War era.

Carter, who was serving on the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941, missed the ceremony in Kitsap County because he was in attendance for 75th anniversary Pearl Harbor ceremonies in Hawaii, recognizing the attack by Japan that killed 2,403 and thrust the United States into World War II.

“I’ve never been treated so well in my life; they really treated me royally,” said the 96-year-old Carter. “If I’m still living next year, I may go back.”

Carter moved to Sequim with his wife, Barbara, now deceased, in 1986. He said he had a son serve in Vietnam, a grandson hoping to attend the U.S. Naval Academy and a great-grandson who is looking to attend the Air Force Academy.

“Youngsters today have no idea what it was like,” Carter said.

Carter said he was very appreciative of the flag and the visit.

“I do want to thank you very much,” he told his visitors from Keyport.

The national Pearl Harbor Survivors Association disbanded in December 2011 after dropping from 30,000 members to about 2,700. Now there could be as few as 300 living Pearl Harbor veterans, the Kitsap Sun reported.

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Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at editor@sequimgazette.com.