Survivors of the aerial attack that destroyed the USS Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941, are going the way of the Doolittle Raiders and Flying Tigers of similar World War II fame.
There are fewer and fewer of the war heroes left as they age into their 90s.
Three hundred thirty-four men survived the Arizona sinking on Battleship Row, according to the National Park Service.
Four of just nine remaining crew members gathered at Pearl Harbor on Tuesday to remember, 73 years later, the loss of 1,177 shipmates and the wider casualties on Oahu.
Two arrived walking and two were in wheelchairs.
But the spirit that carried the men through the dark days of a world war was still very much evident.
The get-together for this year’s Pearl Harbor anniversary was billed as a "final reunion," but the assembled crew was having none of that at a kickoff media event at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center.
"I don’t think this is going to be our last (reunion)," said Lou Conter, 93. John (Anderson) is our oldest man here, and Don (Stratton) is our youngest but we’ve still got time to go. I think that we’ll be back out here no matter whether the rest of the crowd can make it or not."
Anderson is 97. Stratton is 92. The fourth survivor to make the trip, Lauren Bruner, is 94.
The four men plan to uncork a special bottle of sparking wine Sunday afternoon on the Arizona Memorial in a toast to their fallen comrades.
The bottle of Perelada from Spain was in President Gerald Ford’s collection. He gave it to the Arizona survivors in 1975, officials said. One of the glasses used will be placed within the ship.
Approximately 900 crew members killed in the Dec. 7 attack are still entombed in the sunken battleship. The ashes of another 38 who died later are interred in the well of barbette No. 4, a 30-foot-deep cylinder.
Although seven decades have passed, emotions still welled up in the survivors who lost so many shipmates and friends on the day of infamy.
Anderson’s twin brother, Delbert, was among those who perished on the ship.
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PEARL HARBOR DAY CEREMONY
The National Park Service and the Navy will host a joint memorial ceremony commemorating the 73rd anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
>> When: Sunday, 7:45-9:30 a.m.
>> Where: On the main lawn of the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center
>> Highlights: A moment of silence will be observed at 7:55 a.m. — the exact moment the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began. The ceremony will conclude with a “Walk of Honor” by Pearl Harbor Survivors and other World War II Veterans.
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"We never forget what happened," said Conter, who came out from Grass Valley, Calif. "It’s always like yesterday when we come out here. We want to pay homage to the 2,403 servicemen that were killed that day and especially 1,177 of our shipmates aboard the Arizona."
Stratton and Bruner are the only survivors from the forward part of the Arizona, which was consumed in a fireball at about 8:06 a.m. when a Japanese high-level bomber dropped a 1,760-pound armor-piercing bomb on the ship.
The bomb penetrated the forward deck, and the resulting explosion ignited aviation fuel stores and the powder magazines for the 14-inch guns, instantly separating most of the bow from the ship and lifting the 33,000-ton vessel out of the water.
"It was all — maybe I shouldn’t say it — blood and guts," Anderson said.
He helped usher wounded men to boats, went ashore on Ford Island, swam out to an adrift boat with another sailor, headed back to his ship and was able to rescue three more men from the burning Arizona.
On the way back to Ford Island, a shell or something blew up the boat, killing all in it except Anderson, who now lives in Roswell, N.M.
Bruner and Stratton were just several feet apart when the fireball engulfed the fire control crow’s nest where they were stationed.
Both men sustained extensive burns but found the strength to climb hand over hand on a rope to the repair ship Vestal.
Stratton, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., said he later went to get a gun permit "and found out I didn’t have any fingerprints, so you can imagine how bad my hands were burned when we went across that line."
The National Park Service, which administers the Arizona Memorial, arranged to have the memorial’s curator, Scott Pawlowski, on a live video feed underwater during the survivor get-together as Pawlowski swam about the exterior of the battleship.
Pawlowski noted a cleared section of teak decking in one spot, telling the survivors through a communication system, "You can see it’s still in beautiful shape."
He also captured on video some of the bunker fuel oil that still seeps in droplets from the ship.
The park service had on display 3-D resin printouts of a full-size 1941 coral-encrusted Coke bottle and a one-third-scale deteriorated cooking pot found near the Arizona’s galley.
Crews used sonar, LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and photo mapping of the Arizona to create a detailed picture that can be compared against future imaging to determine how much deterioration is taking place.
Conter said during the meeting that "it’s really an honor to be here with these gentlemen alongside of me."
"We must keep ‘Remember Pearl Harbor’ alive all the time," he said.
The survivors will be at the Arizona Memorial Visitor Center from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Friday and Saturday to sign autographs, officials said.
Daniel Martinez, chief historian for the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, which includes the Arizona Memorial, said Bruner signed a letter of intent to have his ashes returned to his ship when he dies.
"I’m going back with my buddies," said Bruner, who lives in La Mirada, Calif.
"I studied that for a long time," he added. "All of my family, my friends, have been buried in various places, cemeteries. But it seems like after a while, nobody pays attention to them anymore after about five years. I hope it’s a lot of people (that) will still be coming over to the Arizona. And we’ll be glad to see them."
But Bruner isn’t ready to go just yet.
"(This) won’t be the last reunion as far as the men go," he said to applause from dozens of family members who attended the event. "We’ll get together."
