Clarendon Hetrick, a retired navy came to BASIS Chandler to tell kids about his life in the navy. The school had dedicated a small library and performed a ceremony to honor the World War II veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor “The kids are excited and this is a good opportunity to learn from Mr.Hetricks life” says Mrs. O’Brien the English teacher at BASIS Chandler We also asked Bob Hetrick son of Clarendon Hetrick how he felt about this event and he said “I am enjoying this, I grew up with my dad coming to my school when I was a kid”. As kids started to come out of their classes to get ready for the ceremony and sat at their places we knew that the ceremony was going to start and we took our seats and got ready for what Mr.Hetrick was going to say. He talked about how he survived the U.S.S Arizona (the ship that he was in at the time of the attack) and told us some other stories on what he remembered and how he survived. After Mr.Hetrick was done with his final words the strings club (music class) played a short song for Mr.Hetrick. Later Angella McKay daughter of Rossane Brunella McKay (who was the one who coordinated everything) sang the national anthem and while she was singing it the navy put up the flag of America. We asked Ryan Colomie a former navy how he felt being in the midst of a pearl harbor and world war II survivor and he said “it is a true honor, when I heard that Mr.Hetrick was coming I came right away to respect and honor the retired hero”. When Mr.Hetrick was done signing autographs and answering questions he got to take a break and watch the rest of the ceremony.
