HONOLULU (AP) — Pearl Harbor survivor Gilbert Meyer says he has returned to the site of the 1941 Japanese bombing because of his shipmates from the USS Utah. He says he comes to pay his respects and say a prayer for them.
The 94-year who lives near Lytle, Texas, says the anniversary of the attack reminds him that he and the other survivors are lucky they got off their ships.
He and other survivors are gathering Thursday at Pearl Harbor to remember fellow servicemen killed in the early morning raid 76 years ago.
Meyer was a fireman first class on Dec. 7, 1941 when a torpedo hit the port side of the Utah. He says he’s still alive because he happened to be on the starboard side. The 18-year-old fireman first class later served in the battles at Attu, Kiska, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. He witnessed Japan’s surrender in 1945 from the deck of the USS Detroit in Tokyo Bay.
He says he thinks about his shipmates and how they were killed. He says it reminds him that they were lucky to get off the ship “and we’ve made a good country for them.”
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