Art Wynant and Mike Sotak have seen a lot of sunrises since Dec. 7, 1941.
But none quite like that sunny Sunday morning 69 years ago Tuesday.
It was on that morning, which turned black with smoke, that Wynant, 89, of Redding and Sotak, 88, of Happy Valley became blood brothers after finding themselves in the middle of the deadly Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor that swept the U.S. into World War II.
With the U.S. now engaged in wars against different enemies, Wynant and 82-year-old Don Crandell of Redding, who was a 13-year-old boy at Pearl Harbor, solemnly placed a wreath Tuesday morning next to a memorial outside the Shasta County Courthouse to honor those 2,407 Americans who died at Pearl Harbor.
Sotak, who served on the USS Maryland, and Wynant, a sailor on the USS Medusa, have also seen a lot of sunsets since that “day of infamy.”
They were two of the few remaining active members of the Shasta County chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association who attended Tuesday’s annual remembrance.
Thee others — Hilton “Hank” Reynolds of Red Bluff, Mel Fisher of Jones Valley and Robert McCullough of Red Bluff — were in Hawaii for the formal dedication of the rebuilt USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center.
Another Pearl Harbor survivor, Richard “Dick” Lamb, who served on the USS Curtiss, died last month at age 86.
Lamb was fondly remembered during Tuesday’s ceremony with Crandell also reading aloud Lamb’s written recollections of the Pearl Harbor attack.
Lamb, he said, was only 17 at the time of the attack that saw 20 of his shipmates killed.
For Sotak, who was 19 at the time of the sneak attack, it was the USS Oklahoma that perhaps saved his life and the lives of his shipmates.
His battleship was protected by the Oklahoma, which was struck by several torpedoes and bombs.
The ship capsized, giving the Maryland a shield from the enemy.
But the Oklahoma paid a heavy price, losing 429 of her crew.
Eighty-year-old Bill McKinney, an Anderson resident and Korean War veteran, said he feels a special closeness with Pearl Harbor veterans. He lost a cousin, Laun Lee Storm, on the USS Arizona, which lost 1,177 crew members.
“I never got to meet him,” he said.
McKinney noted that those who fought in World War II often are called “The Greatest Generation.”
“When they were young they saved the world,” he said.