Crowds, survivors gather to honor memory of Pearl Harbor attack
Pearl Harbor survivors visited with each other before the ceremony started. John Hughes, left, a Sgt. at Ewa Field in the marine corps and Richard Higgins, a 2nd-class radioman on Ford Island, Hanger 6 during the attack spoke with Daniel Martinez, chief historian of the National Park Service.
The faithful came out to Pearl Harbor at dawn this morning for the 71st anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941 attacks.
At 7:55 a.m., the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a moment of silence was observed. Four F-22 Raptors from the Hawaii Air National Guard flew overhead in a missing man formation.
The new Pearl Harbor destroyer, USS Michael Murphy, passed the sunken Arizona at 8:06 a.m. with crew members in white uniforms lining the rails and rendering honors to those who died on Dec. 7, 1941.
Among the survivors there is Lou Conter, 91, who was on the battleship USS Arizona. Conter makes the trip from California almost every year.
He said he is among only 13 still living from the Arizona.
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"It’s just something, you have to honor those 2,403 that got killed that day, and especially 1,177 shipmates on the Arizona," Conter said. "As long as we can, why, we’ll be here every year."
Between 2,500 and 3,000 people are expected to attend the commemoration.
