Since 1994, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day has been observed every December 7. Before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service completed a surprise military strike on Pearl Harbor. Numerous aircraft and battleships were rendered unusable or destroyed, including the U.S.S. Arizona. In all, 2,403 American service members and civilians were killed, and the attack brought the United States into World War II.
As of September 2020, there are 20 North Carolinian service members unaccounted for who were lost on December 7, 1941.
"It is our obligation to our dead -- it is our sacred obligation to their children and our children -- that we must never forget what we have learned.'' - President Franklin Roosevelt, December 8, 1941
*U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Alan Ricker