Pearl Harbor seems so long ago that it can be easy to dismiss it as a dot on the historical calendar.

Military survivors from the attack of December 7, 1941 in Honolulu, Hawaii are fewer, as time claims the lives of those fortunate enough to have escaped.

But when we stop to think about our many friends and neighbors 75 years or older, we realize that Pearl Harbor is not so far away after all.

Many of us either remember the deadly attack, or experienced life-change from that moment and in the years after because of it.

We also have friends, family and neighbors who served in the military in the years after Pearl Harbor whose service was indelibly marked by the deadly attack.

We must always remember the horrors of war, and how it feels to be attacked on our very own soil.

For many, our closest memory is the 9/11 attack and most would agree that the anniversary should never fade because it, too, hurt us so deeply and altered the course of lives.

So today we remember Pearl Harbor and the lives lost in service and those altered by that day’s deadly attack.