Pearl Harbor survivors already looking ahead to 75th anniversary

In remembrance of the events that launched America into World War II, test your knowledge of that tragic moment in history.

The USS Shaw explodes during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor.

From engagement to peace, the USA and Japan continue on a path of reconciliation.

Monday members of the the Veterans of Foreign Wars gathered on the Veteran’s Memorial Pier in Bay Ridge in memory more than 2,400 people who died in the attack. Some of his photos are still considered some of the most iconic of Pearl Harbor.

“Five or six years ago when I went over there to Hawaii”, Arthur Albert said.

David Dorris’ father was at Pearl Harbor during the attack. She said she often shares it with today’s young people, who seem to have hard time grasping the reality of her childhood.

Monday’s ceremony at Fort Allen Park in Portland was fittingly held among the park’s remnants of the USS Portland, a World War II-era heavy cruiser that famously accepted the Japanese surrender of the Truk Island air and naval base on September 7, 1945. The events are sponsored by the park service, the U.S. Navy and the Pacific Historic Parks.

“It’s an honor to meet them and hear their stories”, Ducey said. By not being aboard the ship, at the time of the attack, Langdell avoided the fate of the 1,177 sailors who were lost with the Arizona.

The seaman first class hopped on a truck that took him to the USS Pennsylvania, where he fed ammunition to the deck of the battleship.

It’s 74 years later, but Elmer Luckett will never forget where he was December 7th 1941. It remains a gravesite for many of those killed.

“Of what we went through and what is out there that they’re going to have to go through and to be on guard, we were not on full guard, I don’t think, when this happened”, says Morris.