Outside the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center, Arnold High School’s Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps salute the men – two of Bay County’s few remaining veterans of the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941.

Dec. 7, 2008, will mark 67 years since the attack and the United States’ entry into World War II. The sneak attack was the opening movement to four years of war; at the end of the three- hour battle almost 2,500 people had been killed and half that number wounded.

But as the era of the last true global conflict drifts further into the past, those who witnessed it must drift, too.

At one point, a Bay County lunch for Pearl Harbor survivors could draw nearly 30 people. With the Oct. 17 death of Burl Smith, the number is down to three.

"They’re coming on down," Everitt said. "But I plan to stay in there for the next 10 years so I can be 100. Once I get to 100 then I’ll be smiling and ready to go."