Pearl Harbor Day: A Date To Still Be Remembered

World War II Veteran Wetzel Sanders, 92, is one of the approximately 10 Pearl Harbor survivors remaining in West Virginia.

Of more than 16 million US service members who fought in the war, fewer than 900,000 are still alive, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“I went over and worked on the front line and then I was put in the construction battalion and worked on the ships”, said Walker.

The Japanese air and naval assault on December 7, 1941, a date that U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt said “will live in infamy”, took 2,390 American lives.

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Herb was station at an army base just down-shore from Pearl Harbor, and can vividly recall the moment the attack began.

He said 125 sailors from his ship, a light cruiser called the USS Phoenix, had transferred to the Arizona the day before the attack.

“For a very long time, we never knew what my dad had experienced”, said Jones Barry.

“The memories of Pearl Harbor are always quite strong with me”, survivor Jack Evans told 10News.

Jim Reftis, the Memorial Day Chairman with VFW Post 1371, said Owego – and all of Tioga County – has a lot of respect for its veterans. It come down and I believe it tried to hit the hospital to kill us, as many as they could, but when he crashed, he missed the top of the hospital and crashed into an empty house.

The survivors are not only surrounded by their loved ones, but also the 300 person crew of the USS Pearl Harbor.

He comes to the annual ceremony because the attack was a big thing in his life.

The ceremony was staged near a ceremonial stone honoring Chief Petty Officer (Machinist’s Mate) Frank P. Wojtkiewicz, of the US Navy was killed on the USS Arizona. “When the second bomb went off, I thought, ‘well, we didn’t have two planes to crash'”.