Originally I planned to repost an earlier piece about Pearl Harbor with a couple of updates. One of the updates was a lament that there are fewer and fewer survivors every year.

Which brought me to this article published a couple of days ago.

Pearl Harbor survivors reunite for last official event

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – — Four of the remaining nine USS Arizona survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack are vowing this year’s anniversary won’t be their last reunion.

The men in their 90s gathered for a news conference Tuesday in a building overlooking the memorial that sits on top of the Arizona, a battleship that sank in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. Even though it’s the last official survivor gathering of the USS Arizona Reunion Association, the men said they still plan to get together, even if not in Hawaii.

“I don’t think this is going to be our last. … We’ve still got time to go,” said Louis Conter, 93, of Grass Valley, California. “We’ll be back out here no matter whether the rest of the crowd can make it or not.”

1177 officers and sailors died on the Arizona. Most were entombed in the ship where they remain to this day. 335 survived that day and no doubt some of those men didn’t survive the war.

Each year the number of survivors decreases, and now there are only nine left. Traveling to Hawaii from just about anywhere in the mainland US is a long journey. More so for men in the 90s, but these men have made it a mission to be there.

Donald Stratton, 92, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was one of the few survivors of a gun director in the forward part of the ship. More than 65 percent of his body was burned. Stratton was hospitalized for more than a year and then was medically discharged from the Navy. He then re-enlisted a year later.

Mr. Stratton was (and is) one tough man. Most people with 65% burns not only can’t reenlist in the service, most of them die even today. More so back then. As I said, one tough man.

I’m sure there will be scant news coverage of the attack today. It was a long time ago, the war is long over, Japan is an ally now. Fewer and fewer people seem to care about the history of this country and are more interested in the shenanigans of some so called celebrity.

Which is not only too bad, but it’s a sad commentary on the state of our nation.

No doubt Mr. Stratton and his remaining shipmates remember Pearl Harbor and their shipmates who didn’t survive every day.

When they are gone, some of us will remember for them.