Oldest U.S. vet, 110, helps mark Pearl Harbor Day

Gregg Zoroya | USA TODAY Opinion

Show Caption Hide Caption 110-year-old WWII veteran observes Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day Frank Levingston of Lake Charles, La., who at 110-years-old is believed to be the oldest living WWII veteran, observes Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day at the World War II memorial in Washington DC.

America's oldest-living veteran helped the nation mark the 74th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor on Monday by taking part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the National World War II Memorial in the nation's capital.

Former Army private Frank Levingston, who turned 110 last month, served in Italy during World War II. He enlisted in 1942, shortly after the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack in Hawaii that killed 2,400 servicemembers and brought the United States into the war.

The veteran from Lake Charles, La., who was discharged from the Army in 1945, traveled to Washington for the first time in his life Sunday and will visit the White House on Tuesday, where trip coordinators said they hope to get to meet President Obama. "We don't know, we hope so," Allen Bergeron, who is coordinating Levingston's trip, said Monday.

After a breakfast of scrambled eggs, potatoes, coffee and orange juice at the Hilton Inn in Alexandria, Va., where he was staying, Levingston joined other veterans, including two Pearl Harbor survivors, during Monday's wreath-presentation ceremony witnessed by a crowd of 400.

At the site of the attack, thousands are expected to attend anniversary events, according to KITV Channel 4 in Honolulu. The ceremonies are co-sponsored by the National Park Service and U.S. Navy. The annual Pearl Harbor Memorial Parade will be held Monday evening through the streets of Honolulu and be webcast live.

Commemorations Monday also include the interment in the hull of the USS Arizona of an urn with the ashes of Joseph Langdell, a former ensign on the submerged ship. The interment is to take place with full military honors.

On Tuesday, a dive to the wreck of the Arizona by a Pacific National Monuments cultural resources chief will be broadcast live and people can ask questions through Facebook.

The opening phase of the Japanese attack, which occurred shortly before 8 a.m. Honolulu time, was recalled as a series of concussive explosions in Pearl Harbor, according to an account told recently to the Palladium-Item by survivor and former chief petty officer Guy Vecera, of Richmond, Ind.

"I had the watch on the quarterdeck and was just standing by to hoist the stars and stripes when suddenly the reflection of sunlight on falling objects caught my eyes," he told the newspaper. The objects were bombs that exploded in the harbor.

"We saw a Japanese plane going across our bow with the emblem of the Rising Sun emblazoned boldly on her wings," Vecera recalled.