They were young men, many of them closer to boyhood than fully grown adults when the planes and bombs and torpedoes transformed that lazy Sunday morning in 1941 into the start of a war for America.

Now they are 85 or 88 or 94, their skin loose on their jowls, their hands clutching canes rather than weapons, and every Dec. 7, fewer and fewer of them return to the site at Pearl Harbor where more than 1,000 in their band of brothers fell.

The USS Arizona Reunion Association has no records of how many of the 335 sailors who survived the attack on the battleship - one of eight in the Pacific Fleet bombed 67 years ago today - are still living. The group can account for only 24, one of whom died just eight days ago.

Many who have died asked that their ashes be placed inside the hull of the sunken Arizona and some from other ships have had their ashes scattered over the harbor waters.

The bombing of Pearl Harbor was the seminal event in their lives and those who remain will not let others forget. Their testimony to bravery and grit during the attack, assigned to history as time goes by, will keep the memories alive as long as they can breathe.

They will get some help soon, thanks to President Bush. The World War II Valor in Pacific National Monument, announced by the White House Friday, will be established in nine places in Hawaii, California and Alaska. It will tell a “;cohesive story”; of the conflict in the region, according to U.S. Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye.

The Arizona memorial will be one of five sites in Hawaii, along with bungalows on Ford Island, mooring platforms at Battleship Row, the USS Utah Memorial and the USS Oklahoma Memorial.

The Tule Lake Segregation Center in California, where thousands of Japanese-Americans were wrongly detained after the attack, also will be incorporated to broaden perspectives of the war so that future generations can learn from the nation's mistakes as well as its heroics.

The inclusive viewpoints of the noncontiguous monument will honor the troops - those recognized in high-profile ceremony and the thousands who served anonymously - and the men and women who supported them and their country despite hardships and sacrifices and provide a complete narrative of the war that must not be forgotten.

The monument is a gift of a grateful nation, presented just in time.