Community honors West Loch disaster anniversary | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Community honors West Loch disaster anniversary | Honolulu Star-Advertiser

It was standing room only Wednesday afternoon at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl as veterans and community members gathered to honor the anniversary of the West Loch Disaster.

West Loch Disaster remembrance planned

The Obama Hawaiian Africana Museum and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will host a remembrance ceremony Wednesday at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl honoring the anniversary of the deadly 1944 West Loch Disaster. On May 21, 1944, service members were working on several vessels docked at West Loch loading weapons and supplies to support Operation Forager, the invasion of the Japanese-occupied Mariana Islands. At 3…