On a quiet Sunday morning 70 years ago today, a surprise attack jolted America's peace and changed the world.
The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, plunging the U.S. into World War II. The moment stunned the country, but just as the terrorist attack on Sept. 11 spurred a patriotic fervor among American citizens, the Pearl Harbor attack galvanized and motivated the Greatest Generation to fight back and rebuild the feeling of national security.
The two-hour raid killed more than 2,400 and more than 1,100 were wounded. A day later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told a grieving nation that Dec. 7 was "a date which will live in infamy."
Seven decades later, memories of that day are legendary, but survivors are few. About 29,000 survivors joined the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, chartered in 1958 by Congress, but only 10 percent are living.
Duane Reyelts, 90, of St. Augustine, Florida State Chairman, said at one time there were 16 Florida chapters -- now six. The Northeast Florida Chapter based in Jacksonville, which included Flagler and Volusia County survivors, once a thriving group of more than 1,300 now has 13 members.
"We decided not to have a convention at Pearl Harbor this year, because on Dec. 31 there will be no more association," Reyelts said. "Too many old guys like me don't want to take any offices."
National president Bill Muehleib, 92, of Virginia, said the Pacific Historic Parks and Arizona Memorial Association would step up to continue a national newsletter and collect mementos. A Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors group will also preserve the history, Reyelts said.
For civilians of that generation, they will never forget where they were when they heard the news. It was a defining moment in their lives, Events of that infamous day conjure unforgettable images for those who lived through it. Here are some of their stories:
ERIC NOELDECHEN
The routine for Navy personnel was to salute the daily flag raising, and this day seemed no different at first. The 19-year-old had just finished overnight harbor patrol and eaten a hearty breakfast below deck.
Eric Noeldechen went topside, looked out over a serene harbor and marveled at his great Hawaii assignment.
A few minutes before 8 a.m., as he peered over battleship row, he squinted at oddly marked, low-flying planes that were approaching.
Before he could think, explosions erupted on the Arizona.
"We watched it explode," said Noeldechen of Ormond Beach, in a phone interview from New York where he is visiting his son. "And there were so many planes flying around. Torpedo planes came down and were running close to the water.
"It was a shocking time. Most of us were 19 and didn't know what was going on," said the now 89-year-old, his voice cracking with emotion.
"A guy came off the Helena, I think, with his skin hanging off him, " Noeldechen said. He paused to gather his thoughts. "I took him to the supply vessel and left him with the officer of the day. I often wondered if he lived or died."
He pressed on with his story.
"I could see their faces -- for years I saw this Japanese gunner smiling at me ... , " Noeldechen said. He straddled a boat deck and aimed a .45-caliber Browning pistol at that laughing pilot. He doesn't know if his shots hit their target.
He had lied about his age to join the Army Reserves before entering the Navy, said the Brooklyn, N.Y., native. During the war, he saw eight major sea engagements aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and did a submarine stint. After six years of service, he earned a Long Island University engineering degree and opened a vinyl window factory.
He retired to Florida more than 30 years ago and belongs to several veterans' organizations, including the Northeast Florida Chapter Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and the Central Florida Chapter of the 1st Marine Division Association.
Last year at a Marine group meeting in Orlando, he learned a Marine he helped during the attack had survived.
"This guy said I brought his cousin out and he survived, but he had passed away a few years back,'' said Noeldechen. "Imagine, finding that out after 69 years."
ED SARFDE
He woke up, dazed, amid flames from a 500-pound bomb that penetrated three decks of the seaplane tender USS Curtiss. He never realized until later he had lost three toes and a finger and suffered burns.
While time has slowed Ed Sarfde's reflexes, at 91 he still thinks daily about Dec. 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor.
He barely recalls the handling room hatch opening and someone hoisting him out.
"I thought I was gone that day," said Sarfde in an interview at an assisted living facility in Palm Coast, where he is doing well following a recent hip replacement.
The Massachusetts native enlisted in the Navy at 19 and was an ammunition handler a few years before the attack. He shipped out of Norfolk, Va., headed to Iceland, when a sister ship had problems. The USS Curtiss was rerouted to take over the other ship's assignment at Pearl Harbor. A great assignment -- warm, occasional shore leave.
On that day 70 years ago, he was just sitting down to breakfast and could see out the ship's port side. He thought he was watching target practice but someone had used the wrong bomb.
But then came a call to general quarters. He scrambled below, avoiding strafing, and began sending ammunition topside. He learned from the intercom that a Japanese plane had crashed into the ship, but then he went numb. He was transported to a hospital ship, where he was sedated and sewn up.
Months passed before he was transferred to Honolulu and later to San Diego. On July 2, 1942, he was discharged. He worked in a woolen mill, did laundry delivery and worked for the Essex County Sheriff's Office in Massachusetts, retiring after 28 years.
He moved to Florida to be near his son, Edward, and daughter-in-law, Denise, now a widow. He joined a South Florida Pearl Harbor survivors group.
Over the years, the memories distressed him and his wounds pained him.
"I worked my way out of it," he said. "I kept myself busy, even with my injuries."
JANE DODSON
The horrible smell is a lingering memory for Jane Dodson of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
She arrived in Hawaii in early December from Missouri to become the bride of Al Dodson, a Navy PBY (Patrol Bomber by Consolidated Aircraft) seaplane aircraft pilot. She was going to live in a rented Honolulu bungalow with her future Navy-officer husband.
On Dec. 6, 1941, she was a guest of a military couple near Pearl Harbor, across the island from Kaneohe airbase where Dodson was stationed. The scheduled wedding date was Dec. 14.
She was engaged for a year, but the Navy required its ensigns be in the service for two years before they could marry and claim a dependent. Al Dodson's service anniversary date was Dec. 11.
"I was sound asleep when the first bombs dropped," said Jane Dodson in a phone interview from Raymore, Mo. Dodson, now widowed, lives part time in Ormond Beach with her son, Bill Dodson.
"The bombs dropped on Kaneohe first -- three or four seconds before the Japanese reached Pearl. We had a range of mountains separating us -- the volcanoes."
A radio broadcast told of the air attack, but hours passed before she knew if her future husband was still alive.
"Nobody had any idea," she said. "I got into my clothes and ran outside and saw the planes flying over us -- with the red suns (Japanese fighter plane emblems). The wives stood around and talked together."
Later in the day, Dodson learned her husband was OK, but most planes at Kaneohe were destroyed.
A few days later, a military wife headed into the base invited her along. That's when she saw firsthand the damage and casualties.
"The movie about Pearl Harbor a few years ago really did a good job, but they didn't get the smell of the oil and the dead bodies," Dodson said. "It smelled horrible."
On Dec. 11, the soonest date allowable, Dodson and her ensign tied the knot.
"It was not the wedding we planned," she said. "I saw him every third night and he had to fly out (on a mission) for three weeks. When he came back, he had two weeks of rest and relaxation. We had a great time and enjoyed life."
But shortly after that, she was evacuated back to the United States and he went to war.
ERNEST BOUGH
He's an old veteran who retired to Florida, a joker, always happy, with no worries, except when he sleeps.
That's when Ernest Bough's subconscious remembers, and he sees the dead bodies at Pearl Harbor, over and over again from that Sunday when he had a break from early morning duty.
Bough, 90, joined the Army at 19 to avoid a draft and was in the service a year by the time he was assigned as a battery carpenter at Fort Shafter, a base connected to radar sites on Oahu near the harbor. The Indiana native was off work that day and awoke in his bed to loud sounds he didn't recognize at first. Someone ran through the barracks shouting to get on the trucks.
"I was the first one on the truck," he said, but it took awhile for everyone to muster before the truck pulled out. He could see the Japanese pilots in the low-flying planes strafing the highway. "Had we not been a little late getting out, we all would have been killed out there."
The truck sped through Hickam Field, where planes and personnel were extensively damaged by bombing and strafing.
"Guys out there with the machine guns were lying around dead," Bough said. "I was young. I was just a kid. Wet behind the ears. I put it out of my mind. It depresses me, but I dream a lot."
During the months following the attack, Bough went to radar school and earned the rank of sergeant in charge of trainees.
"They sent me to Apopka," he said. "I trained them how to work the radar and send information."
Bough spent five years in the military, then returned to worked in a corrugated box factory in Terre Haute, Ind., and eventually retired to Florida. He participates in several veterans' organizations, including Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, where he served as vice-president in his Indiana branch. He returned with that group to Pearl Harbor at times, but says he prefers to forget.
Bough is proud to have served, but was too young to comprehend the importance of what his generation did until much later, he said.
"After seeing the dead bodies, I was just thankful I came out of Pearl Harbor alive."
EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the branch of service for Bough.