From the Dec. 6, 2008, Newsday.com.
On Dec. 6, 1941, Arthur Zaccaria, 87, and some Army buddies were planning to go to Pearl Harbor to meet four sailors on the USS Arizona. At the time, he was 20 and in the infantry.
They ended up going to Honolulu instead that night and returned to their bunks at Schoield Barracks, 30 miles from Pearl Harbor.
The four sailors they were going to visit were among the missing the next day and presumed dead. Good thing they didn't visit and stay.
The Nassau-Suffolk (NY) Pearl Harbor Survivors Association has just 6 members left. At its peak in the 1970s, they had 38 according to Bill Halleron, 90. All too often,they get together to attend the funerals of old buddies.
Other mebers remaining:
RICHARD ABELES, 87, of Bay Shore, radioman on the USS Dale.
FRANK CASTRONOVO, 90, of Elmont, at Schofield Barracks.
ANDREW TERRONO, 90, of Mossapequa, on the USS Tennessee.
MICHAEL MONTELIONE, 89, of Farmingdale.
Halleron gave his nineteen-year-old grandson a piece of aluminum from the Japanese plane shot down by his ship, the USS Phoenix.
Heroes, All. --Cooter
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