Today, on the 69th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, we remember those who died on "a date which will live in infamy." Old footage from the attack is featured below:
The Los Angeles Times today features the story of two survivors of the attack. Years later, the two men accidentally became neighbors -- and their story is worth a read. An excerpt is below:
They were barely men at the time, unaware of each other but baptized by the same fire.
Paul Perrault was 21, a naval officer aboard the light cruiser Phoenix, anchored in Pearl Harbor's East Loch. He had just risen from his bunk when cannon-like blasts tore through the morning calm. Scrambling to his post in the gunnery, he saw a sky speckled with Japanese planes.
Across the harbor on Ford Island was Seaman 2nd Class Anthony "George" Mark, 18, who narrowly escaped as a plane strafed his area and bombs plunged into nearby hangars.
Twenty years later, two fathers met on a Monrovia cul-de-sac. One lived in a tan-colored home with his wife and two children. The other was moving his family of five into the house next door. After a month of small talk, the men learned of their shared past.Chance had saved their lives. Chance made them neighbors.