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CNN Live At Daybreak

Pearl Harbor Survivors Recognize Parallels With September 11th

Aired December 06, 2001 - 06:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CALLAWAY: Well, imagine what it will be like 60 years from now when survivors of September 11th gather to remember the attacks. Our modern day of infamy. You're looking now at live pictures from ground zero as recovery efforts on that tragic day continue. Well survivors will no doubt share the feelings of those who gathered aboard the USS New Jersey to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

REP. ROBERT E. ANDREWS (D), NEW JERSEY: Eleven years ago we started this event as a way to say thank you to the Pearl Harbor generation and I look at this event as an inspiration. I hope that our generation can rise to the occasion the way the Pearl Harbor generation rose to its occasion and rid the world of a terrible scourge.

DOMENIC GENTILE, PEARL HARBOR SURVIVOR: We heard this bombing and we say boy, that's a hell of a way the Army Air Force have maneuvers on Sunday morning, because we were right next door to Hecken Field (ph) and as they dropped the bombs, they swung around and then next thing you know they start strafing it. So, I was on one of the destroyers that was on fire, and a sailor came rush up from below decks. So to stop him from jumping overboard, because that time the water was on fire, I pulled him and he pulled and the only thing that remained in my hand was his skin. His flesh was burned.

He jumped overboard, you know, in the bombing, so that you know he was -- he burned to death. We picked up these sailors that were wounded and burned and the Marines and brought them to the hospital, and we worked for a couple of days. I didn't get to take a shower in about three days and that's when I start shaking. I looked in the -- I went in the men's room and looked into the toilet and saw what I looked like, you wouldn't believe it. I was black. My clothes were all bloody, black from the smoke.

ANDREWS: I think that the World War II generation are the heroes of the -- of the present, not the heroes of the past because they have a lesson to teach us about casting aside your personal feelings and personal ambitions and doing what your country needs you to do.

It's a lesson that those firefighters and police officers learned in New York City, which is why they went into those buildings when they were collapsing.

GENTILE: When I saw that and saw the plane hit, and I really felt really, really awful and then the smoke and all -- it reminded me of Pearl Harbor because the Arizona and everything. Every other -- the other ships that were burning and I just figure, you know, this is it just like they did in Pearl Harbor. I said this is it. I feel, like I said, I feel sorry for the ones that found these burned bodies, that had to smell them because they'll never get rid of that smell. That smell will stay with them the rest of their lives.

ANDREWS: December 7th, 1941 was the beginning of the end for Nazism. I think that we will look back and see September 11th, 2001 as the beginning of the end for terrorism. The country rallied after Pearl Harbor and it became invincible. And I see the same thing happening now with respect to terrorism.

GENTILE: As a nation right now, we're kind of united. You see everybody flying flags. The best thing that I remember that day is our flag flying in front of the hospital in that wind. That is my memory -- really memory of Pearl Harbor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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