Every year, a group of Pearl Harbor survivors living in the Yakima Valley in Washington state gather to remember the attack they all survived, the Yakima-Herald reported.
As the years have gone on, only a handful of the original group of 70 survivors in the area remain, according to Carl Dry, 89, of Yakima, president of the Yakima chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, the paper reported.
Dry was on the east side of Oahu where the Japanese torpedo planes first hit before going on to attack Pearl Harbor 30 miles away, the paper reported.
"It was an exclusive group that lived through the first day of the war," said Dry.
"We are a dying breed, said Donald Green, 87, the Washington state chairman of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, according to the paper.
"I hate to put it that way."
The group gets together four times a year to try to keep the longstanding tradition going and to spread the message that the U.S. needs to stay vigilant always to prevent an attack, the paper reported.
When they meet, each survivor stands up to state their duty station that day, the paper reported.
"A few in our outfit don't want to wind it up," said Dry.
"They want to keep it going until the last man. I guess that is the way it is going to be," he said, according to the paper.
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