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Local Pearl Harbor Group Vows To Continue On

RANCHO CORDOVA (CBS13) -- A local Pearl Harbor Survivors Association group, first united by that day 70 years ago that lives in infamy, has grown closer over the decades from many conventions, meetings, and, like Wednesday, breakfast gatherings.

"Friendship that has lasted and has developed among the members and they can remember the good times as well as the bad," said Sam Clower Jr. of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors during the event in Rancho Cordova.

His father, Sam Clower Sr., is one of a dwindling group of Pearl Harbor survivors.

"We formed this bond or fellowship that still exists today," he said.

Clower Sr. saw the first Japanese planes come in not 500 feet above him on Dec. 7, 1941.

"I was on duty when it happened on a water reservoir right at the end of Wheeler Field, and I saw Wheeler Field destroyed completely," he said.

Chaotic moments he still remembers so vividly. He says he was just trying not to get hit.

"Like yesterday," he said. "Very vivid. They don't leave you."

The local chapter says it'll keep getting together even though technically the national group is disbanding as its membership continues to shrink.

The Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors group also pledges to carry on.

"It's what they call the aloha spirit," said Sherry Bradley, whose father was a survivor. "You're always among friends even when your own parents are gone."

And so the group will live on in one way or another; they even plan to continue their monthly meetings until, as one survivor put it, there are no members left.

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