Admiral Harry Harris, who currently serves as the Commander of the United States Pacific Command, was scheduled to give remarks at the ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When the Navy band finished playing the national anthem, Admiral Harris went off script and was rewarded with a standing ovation.
When the band finished, Admiral Harris said, “You can bet that the men and women that we honor today, and those who died that fateful morning 75 years ago, never took a knee and never failed to stand whenever they heard our national anthem being played.”
The reference to taking a knee was a swipe a San Fransisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who gained notoriety by refusing to stand for the national anthem to show his support for Black Lives Matter.
The crowd, which included survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack, stood and cheered.