Tulsa-Area Pearl Harbor Survivors Attend Yearly Remembrance

Thursday is Pearl Harbor Day - the day 76 years ago when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, pushing the United States into World War II.

Each December 7th, Tulsa area survivors of the bombing get together to remember.

Lonnie Cook is one of the only five USS Arizona survivors still living. He was at Thursday’s remembrance.

"I was standing in front of my locker changing clothes when we heard a rumbling."

The rumbling, of course, was the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor.

Another Pearl Harbor survivor, Arles Cole, was on the USS West Virginia. Thursday, he gave the invocation.

It’s the annual meeting of the Tulsa area Last Mans Club. Pearl Harbor Survivors. Cook and Cole are the two remaining members.

The meeting commemorates their service and remembers the 69 members who have passed.

Each of the 69 names was read, there was a moment of silence and Taps was played.

The December 7th meetings are a chance to honor survivors and tell stories, like the day the war ended.

"We landed in San Francisco. Everybody'd been celebrating for hours. Everybody was drunk. The bars were all closed, you couldn't get a drink…all the women were running down the street huggin’ and kissin' everybody they could catch," Cook recalled.