Pearl Harbor survivors mark attack’s 75th anniversary in Norco

“There’s nobody else alive who was on the Taney”.

“December 7 is a good day to remember that the world is unsafe and shattering surprise is possible even when we have been warned”, Gingrich tweeted shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday.

“It’s just wonderful that these people come out and honor that and to think how many lives was affected not just 3,000 but every family”, Brantley said.

The veterans say they all shared their stories on this anniversary hoping younger generations won’t ever forget all that was lost and sacrificed on that dark day in history.

The 92 year-old was stationed in Hawaii two years after Japanese bombers attacked.

“And this year, we have the remains of four Kansans that came home and are back in Kansas soil”.

“Pearl Harbor veterans, there are about, as we understand it, 400 at most that remain [in the country]”, said Dale Derr, the director at Berks County Veterans Affairs.

On a bright, sunny Hawaiian morning in 1941, American sailors in Pearl Harbor awoke to the sounds of explosions and gunfire, quickly followed by some of the most frightening words a serviceman could hear: “Air raid Pearl Harbor”.

“I still got the memories. You feel helpless because, ‘What am I going to do?”.

“I chose to crawl the lines, hand over hand, to the Tennessee, and that’s how I got off the ship”, Beaudreau said.

Whatever their role was in the second World War, it didn’t matter. They’re all brothers now.

Carl said he recalled their father receiving a telegram that evening, and finding out Lewis had died in the attack.

“They don’t know World War 2 no more”. He said they were an inspiration during his tours of duty in Vietnam.

“This is a good place to be meeting, but like I said, you can’t hardly get everybody together. I guess every time an airplane flew over we thought it was the Japanese, but it wasn’t”, said Orlo Syrtveit, who lived in Northern Minnesota. There was a 100-year-old veteran in attendance.