Pearl Harbor Survivor Honored On Flight To Honolulu
DENVER (CBS4) - A Pearl Harbor survivor got a touching sendoff on a flight to Hawaii on Thursday.
Donald Stratton, from Colorado Springs, was aboard the United flight bound for Honolulu for the Arizona Final Salute ceremony, marking the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Stratton served aboard the USS Arizona, which was sunk by Japanese attack fighters on December 7, 1941, and served as the event that ultimately drew the United States into World War II.
Stratton is just one of five living survivors of the attack, which killed 2,402, including 1,177 on the Arizona. Just 334 survived the attack aboard that battleship.
The flight was given a water salute, a ceremonial shooting of water from two fire trucks, above a plane.
United Airlines says a fundraising effort was so successful, the airline was able to fly many of the remaining survivors' family members with them to the ceremony.
The campaign was created by the families of the remaining Arizona survivors to provide funding to allow the men to return to Pearl Harbor for the 75th anniversary.
