The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Survivors Gather to Remember Pearl Harbor Attack-- Part 2: Only 2000 Remain (9 from the Arizona)

Only about 2000 survivors of the attack are still alive now.

There are just nine remaining USS Arizona survivors and four were in attendance.

Arizona survivors Don Stratton, 92, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Lauren Bruner, 94, of La Mirada, California, escaped the inferno that the forward half of their ship had become by negotiating a line, hand-over-hand, about 45 feet in the air, despite burns over about 60% of their bodies..

John Anderson, 97, of Roswell, New Mexico, was ordered off the Arizona, but didn't want to leave his twin brother Delbert behind.  He was forced into a small boat and taken to Ford Island, but found an empty boat and returned to his ship and rescued 3 shipmates, but never found his brother.

--GreGen

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