Fountain Hills veterans paused Friday morning to remember Dec. 7, 1941, “a day that shall live in infamy.”

It was the day that Japan attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, entering the United States in World War II.

The attack resulted in the death of more than 2,400 people including civilians and more than 1,700 aboard the U.S.S. Arizona that was sunk to the bottom of the harbor.

VFW Post 7507 Commander Ron Smith, American Legion Post Commander Post 58 Commander John Weedo and Sr. Vice Commandant, Marine Corps League Det. 1439 David Nelson, rotated in presenting the story of Pearl Harbor from different perspectives of those who were present and under attack; a nurse at a hospital, a sailor aboard one of the ships, a soldier stationed at an Army base.

They described how Japanese planes swooped in low, strafing and bombing everything in sight. Soldiers and sailors found they were shaken from a quiet morning only to find themselves short of the equipment and supplies they would need to defend the base.

Smith also recounted that with the passing of former President George H.W. Bush that he was in prep school when Pearl Harbor was attacked and signed on for pilot training after graduation. Just prior to his 19th birthday, Bush was commissioned as the youngest pilot in the Air Corp.

Smith said Bush was shot down and he was the only survivor of the crew and was asking “why me.”

“That is a question that most who have served in combat have asked themselves,” Smith said. “Is it really a coincidence that that [Bush Sr.] was the 41st president considering all that happened to shape his life that occurred in 1941?”

There is a lesson from the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Smith said.

“Nothing is impossible for the American people,” he said. “They are a can-do generation that would not take ‘no’ for an answer – truly the Greatest Generation of Americans.”

Smith went on the recognize veterans of World War II and asked those present for the ceremony to stand – there were just five.