Adm. Vern Clark, chief of naval operations, told the 100 or so Pearl Harbor survivors at the Arizona Memorial that today's sailors and soldiers "are (as) dedicated and determined as their predecessors. They are motivated by your service and heroics."

The ceremonies began in silence on the Arizona Memorial at 7:55 a.m., the moment the first Japanese bombs began to fall on Pearl Harbor.

The sounds of warplanes once again thundered across Pearl Harbor as F-15 fighter jets from the Hawai'i Air National Guard flew the missing-man formation. The USS Paul Hamilton steamed past the Arizona Memorial and rendered honors.

The strains of "The Star-Spangled Banner" blared over the waters of Pearl Harbor. Visitors on shore joined in by singing.

The waters around the Arizona were streaked in a tiny rainbow of colors from the fuel oil that still weeps from the rusted wreckage of the battleship. Sailors raised the American flag to half-mast over the white memorial.

Marines posted on the mooring of the USS Vestal, the repair ship next to the Arizona at the time of the attack, fired a 21-gun salute. Buglers blew taps, their notes bouncing off the memorial's walls.

And as if on cue, the light rain that had been falling suddenly stopped and a rainbow appeared over Pearl Harbor.

Army Staff Sgt. Chris Minor, who is stationed at Schofield Barracks, brought his wife and three daughters, ages 13, 9 and 4, to the Arizona Memorial's visitors center "so they could relate today's events to Sept. 11."

The girls' great-grandfathers both fought in the Pacific during World War II, a war they have had to learn about after the fact.

"I think it's a great way for them to draw the two events together," Minor said. "It draws it all together for the family."

'Marines don't cry'

Speaker Joan Zuber Earle of Piedmont, Calif., was a 10-year-old girl living on Ford Island when the attack began. Her father was commander of the Marine barracks. She told the audience how wonderful it was to live there and play with the other children. She got her first kiss there.

That Sunday, life changed when she learned how people lose their compassion.

She remembered staring out the window of the family home, standing between her parents and watching the planes attack. She, her mother and her 11-year-old sister, ran across the island to a shelter but were forced into another building when Japanese planes began to strafe them.

"Then there was a dreadful explosion," Earle said. "And looking out the window, all you could see was flames. I was terrified. I began to cry. My mother said, 'Marines don't cry.' I was raised a Marine, so I stopped."

She and her sister gave their bathrobes to be used as bandages. When the attack was over and they walked home, someone asked if they wanted to see the body of a Japanese pilot and they said yes.

That's when she learned how people can lose their compassion.

"I hated him," she said. "He was the enemy."

For many Pearl Harbor survivors, this year will be the last time they're able to travel to Hawai'i to honor the soldiers and sailors who didn't make it.

"Absolutely," said Bill Eckel, treasurer of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. "It will be our last time."

Eckel, 79, from Rusk, Texas, was aboard the USS New Orleans 60 years ago. He arrived for the commemoration with eight family members.

"We have been coming back ever since 1965," Eckel said. "I have been coming back all this time, but this time, since it's the 60th, we feel it will be the last one for everyone, on account of their age."

Eckel estimated there are close to 800 survivors in Hawai'i for the anniversary, along with about 2,200 of their friends and relatives. By comparison, about 4,000 survivors and about 8,000 of their friends and family members attended the 50th anniversary ceremony in 1991.

They came back a little slower in step this year, some needing walking canes and wheelchairs.

Woody Derby, an 83-year-old survivor of the battleship USS Nevada, took a dozen former shipmates on a tour of the harbor with the Navy as host.

When they reached Hospital Point, the spot where the Nevada grounded itself during the attack, they scattered the ashes of a shipmate. It was all Derby could do not to cry.

Still, the anniversary had been a day to remember.

"I think it's been tremendous," Derby said. "It makes you stop and think, by God, how lucky you are."

Manuel Magdaleno, a survivor from the battleship USS Tennessee, said it's premature to declare that this will be the last big year. His younger brother, Henry, fought alongside him during the attack.

"When it comes to Pearl Harbor survivors there is no such thing as a last hurrah," said the 84-year-old Magdaleno, who gets around in a wheelchair. "As long as the last man is standing, we'll keep coming back."

Memories strong

August Van Gampeleare, 79, a seaman first class aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma that capsized Dec. 7, was wheeled off the Arizona Memorial after the ceremony and received a salute from sailors. "I would like to come back here, God permitting," he said. "A lot of us veterans believe in never say never."

Whether they return or never come back, the memories of Dec. 7, 1941, will remain seared in the minds of the survivors, said Frank Curre Jr., a 78-year-old survivor of the Tennessee.

"It's been hard for me through the years to forgive," he said. "I still work on it. When you see shipmates burned to a crisp or you pull bodies out of the water and stack them like cord wood, it's hard. Most of us say we don't forget and we don't forgive. We'd like to. The good book says we should."

Curre traveled from his home in Waco, Texas, to throw a white orchid into the waters of Pearl Harbor yesterday.

It gave him a sense of closure.