Survivors return to Pearl Harbor 74 years later

His aunt and uncle, who he was living with at the time, said no.

Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day was honored by a special ceremony at the World War II Memorial, and a Lake Charles man was a special guest. “It was approximately a mile away from the Arizona”, Guthrie said. All the ships were later raised except for the USS Arizona, which sank with more than 1,000 men on board.

On Monday, veterans gathered to pay tribute to the almost 2,400 Americans killed on December 7th, 1941, in Hawaii.

The Saratoga and other aircraft carriers were not in the harbor that day, the prize Pacific battleship fleet of the United States was inside the harbor and when Gunter and his shipmates arrived, the vaunted fleet lay in ruin. Some of them dead and some of them weren’t.

“What took us three or free weeks to unload…took us about three days to load it up because they worked our fannies off, day and night, until food and ammunition – everything was put back on board. We can not rely on our president, our senators, our legislature”, Balsamo said.

“Very emotional”, said Stu Hedley, Pearl Harbor survivor.

“I flew over it just to get up in the air to see what was bad and it was a mess”, said Gunter. He waved at me.

Dayton resident, Bill Walker says in his hometown there was only one recruiting office.

“You have to remember a lot of these veterans went out and they returned but they really didn’t know if they were going to return and that’s quite a sacrifice that they have given us”.

This is the fifth year the group has held the event to honor those who died on the battleship.

News4’s Tom Sherwood talked to a veteran at a Pearl Harbor ceremony who called on Americans to stop being divided by religion. Just like the shooting on the West coast.

“During the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he dove into an ocean that was aflame in a valiant attempt to save one of his fellow seamen”.