The Sconi

Eighty years after over 2,400 U.S. personnel lost their lives in the Pearl Harbor attacks, Wisconsin residents took time to remember, honor and thank those who paid the cost of freedom. 

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) tweeted Dec. 7, honoring those who lost their lives.

“Eighty years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, we remember the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation. Two Wisconsinites were in command of the USS Arizona & USS Vestal on Dec. 7, 1941. Both Franklin Van Valkenburgh and Cassin Young received the Medal of Honor,” Johnson wrote in his Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day tweet.

According to HISTORY, Japanese fighter planes attacked the U.S. naval base near Honolulu on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, killing over 2,400 Americans and wounding another 1,000, including civilians. The attacks resulted in the destruction or damage of 20 U.S. Navy vessels and more than 300 airplanes, leading then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare war on Japan just one day after the Pearl Harbor attack.

At that time, the president delivered an address to the nation stating he had directed all measures be taken for the country’s defense, Time Magazine reports. In the same address, he said no matter how long it may take to overcome the invasion, the American people would win through to victory and defend themselves to ensure such an action would never endanger the American people again.

At the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, accounts of Wisconsinites in Hawaii on Dec. 7 have been preserved, bearing first-hand details of this pivotal moment in American history. Arthur “Art” Rortvedt from DeFrost lived to tell his story and it is preserved there. Others, like the Barber brothers from New London, ages 19, 20 and 22, lost their lives alongside thousands of other Americans.