Today marks 77 years since the attack on Pearl Harbor, the day Japan bombed the U.S. Naval base in Hawaii.
The attack led the U.S. to entering World War II.
This year, for the first time, none of the survivors of the USS Arizona will be there.
A handful of survivors are still living, but their age and a number of health issues are keeping them at home.
Here in Arizona, a Remembrance Day ceremony took place at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza starting at 10:55 a.m. which was the local time of the attack in Hawaii the day it all unfolded.
12 News spoke with a Pearl Harbor who lives right here in the Valley, in the Sun Lakes community.
“The memories are all there, it's something you don't forget," said Jack Holder, who still vividly remembers what happened.
"When the section leader began roll call, we heard a screaming aircraft and moments later, a terrible explosion," he said.
"We ran outside the hangar, the VP-21, the aviation hangar, received the first bomb that fell on Ford Island," said Holder.
"All of our aircraft, half of them were on fire and when we ran outside, we saw the aircraft circling overhead with the rising sun insignia,” he said. “We knew immediately what had happened."
He says it was then they started clinging to each other in a ditch.
"God please don't let me die in this ditch,” he said.
“One of the pilots seen us circled, missed us by three or four feet. He hit the dirt piled up beside the ditch and when we came out, I saw devastation I'll never forget."
Jack says they had no idea where the Japanese fleet was or if they planned to return. Fortunately, that didn't happen. On the fourth day, they were allowed to return to their barracks. That's where everyone was issued a postcard with two inscriptions. He recalls one said, "I've been wounded" and the second one said, "I'm ok… don't worry."
Jack's mother received the card 11 days later.
"Later when I saw my father, he says my mother was hysterical during this time,” said Holder. “He said she got on her knees and prayed to God if he would save her son, she'd spend the rest of her life working for the church and she did."
Today Jack is an author and he stays busy doing presentations at schools across the country, bringing them valuable history lessons.
Every December 7th, the Greatest Generation Foundation has taken Pearl Harbor survivors back to where it all happened. Jack has been back 4 times, but not last year. Instead, he was one of five Pearl Harbor survivors invited to the White House and he was in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump.