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Pearl Harbor survivor recalls attack; Virginia War Memorial marks anniversary 

Posted at 11:46 PM, Dec 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-09 01:42:52-05

RICHMOND, Va. -- More than 2,300 service members were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Those victims were honored 77 years after the attack at a Saturday service at the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond.

WTVR CBS 6 Photojournalist Ian Ramprashad talked to survivor Leonard Gardner.

Gardner, who joined the Navy in 1940 and was stationed on the USS Reid in Pearl Harbor, has vivid memories of that fateful morning.

"I came up on deck and just as I did, a plane flew over the nest of the destroyers," Gardner recalled.

Gardner was unprepared for what he saw next.

"And it [the plane] had a red ball on it -- and it dropped it on something and it blew up," Gardner  said. "Of course I knew then that something was wrong."

Gardner said the service members on board his ship had no idea "what was waiting for us just over the horizon."

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