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Video: Ray Garland describes attack

In this Dec. 7, 2014, SR file photo, Pearl Harbor Survivors Association members from left, Bud Garvin, in wheelchair, Ray Garland, in uniform, Clyde Buteau, in a walker, Charlie Boyer, wheelchair, and Sid Kennedy, wheelchair, gather before the newly-installed memorial stone before a ceremony at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, to commemorate the 73rd anniversary of the attack that began America's involvement into WWII. (Dan Pelle/SR photo)

Ray Garland, 94, is the last living military veteran on the membership roster of the Lilac City Chapter of Pearl Harbor Survivors. At one time the chapter had 125 active members from all over the Inland Empire. Just before 8 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, a weary Ray Garland joined a small group of sailors and Marines on the quarterdeck of the USS Tennessee. He’d been on watch since 4 a.m. but got off early to help raise the colors. “I heard a noise,” he recalled. “A corporal said, ‘Turn around,’ so I did. I saw a Japanese dive bomber flying alongside us. He was so close, I could see his goggles.”

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Huckleberries Online." Read all stories from this blog