Carnegie Science Center will honor military veterans with a special ceremony on board the USS Requin this Sunday morning.
The USS VI Requin Base serves as the local hub for submarine veterans, similar to a Veterans of Foreign War post.
Patty Rogers, curator of historic exhibits at Carnegie Science Center, says this is the sixth year they’ve done the ceremony, after being approached by a veterans group asking if they could hold a Memorial Day ceremony on board the submarine.
Rogers said the most moving part of the ceremony is when “they toll the bell and call out the name for each submarine lost at sea and on eternal patrol.”
Veterans will cast flower petals onto the water, so they may “travel down the rivers of this great nation, to the oceans where our fellow submariners are at rest.”
Rogers said the science center has a great relationship with local veterans, who often lead tours of the USS Requin for small groups.
“The USS Requin here at Carnegie Science Center is just steeped in science, technology, engineering and math,” Rogers said. “It’s a very unique learning experience and is one-of-a-kind for many of our visitors.”
The name of the submarine comes from the French word for “shark.” The USS Requin was built in 1945 and intended for use in WWII, but the war ended just three days before she was to begin her first war patrol.
