SANFORD — U.S. Army veteran Frank Hall remembers well what came after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Dec. 7, 1941 that killed thousands of servicemen and devastated the U.S. Pacific fleet.

A fresh-faced 18-year-old at the time, he was among the soldiers sent there within six weeks of the attack by Japan. The war then took him further afield, first to England, then across the channel ”“ in the fourth wave of soldiers who landed at Utah Beach on D Day June 6, 1944 ”“ and eventually, to Germany.

He was in the Battle of the Bulge. He was at Buchenwald.

Hall was among veterans who paused in Sanford on a chilly Friday morning to mark the bombing, which took place 71 years ago.

There was a short ceremony, attended, for the most part, by veterans and others who are members of military-related organizations ”“ Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Rolling Thunder, the Marine Corps League, Vietnam Veterans of America, members of the Naval Junior ROTC program and a few others.

There were prayers, a rifle salute and then a decorated wreath was gently placed in the water at Number One Pond.

It was a moment to remember; a moment to think about those naval personnel who will remain young for all eternity. It was a moment for those who served to remember their own war ”“ whether the war was World War II or the conflicts that followed.

The attack by Japanese naval and air forces killed 2,395 members of the U.S. armed forces and civilians. With the attack, the United States joined the allies in World War II.

Hall said his father rushed into his bedroom when news of the attack came.

“He shook the bed,” Hall remembered Friday. Just weeks later, the young Hall was headed for Hawaii.

Then came Europe ”“ France on Utah Beach and then six months later, in the Ardennes region of Belgium, in the Battle of the Bulge.

Three years later, Hall was among the soldiers who found themselves at Buchenwald, a concentration camp near Weimar, Germany.

Hall, sporting a Stars and Stripes patriotic necktie,  opened his wallet and extracted a packet of three small, black and white photographs. One is of photo is of a young man ”“ Hall himself ”“ taken in a foxhole.

Two photos he took at Buchenwald show soldiers walking up to the concentration camp. Hall remembers the day he took them: April 5, 1945.

“I’ve carried these for 70 years,” he said.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, Ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.