ST. LOUIS — Eighty-two years ago, more than 2,400 service members and civilians lost their lives when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor.
It was a sleepy Sunday morning on the Hawaiian island of Oahu when the drone of attack planes broke the quiet.
The sneak attack on the United States Naval base pulled the country into World War II.
We dug into our archives for a look back at St. Louis' connection to the so-called "day that will live in infamy."
Our Vintage KSDK includes a dramatic film that shows the destruction that began before 8 a.m. Hawaiian time.
"At that particular time, I was in the shower, taking a shower," Henry Berger said.
The Crestwood, Missouri, resident was an Army private serving in Pearl Harbor that day. KSDK interviewed him 27 years later, on Dec. 7, 1968.
He told our reporter he knew something was wrong when he saw the first bombs drop as he looked out a window.
"I looked to my left and I could see the Arizona," Berger said. “A big white bomb came down. The bombing, a torpedo must have hit the Arizona about the same time because he seemed to go up like this and settle. She had broken in half."
Robert Beckmann of St. Louis was an army private also in Pearl Harbor that day. He said he remembered seeing the attack planes approach.
"All of a sudden, we just looked out,” Beckmann said. “We saw these planes coming in. At first, we thought it was routine drills we used to have over there, but we saw the meatballs on those planes and we thought something else was up."
Beckmann said all of his fellow servicemen and women knew what it meant.
"At Mary's Point was where I saw the first torpedo drop," Beckmann said. "She went straight on out and hit Oklahoma. Then we knew it was, it was war."
In all, 19 U.S. Navy ships and eight battleships were damaged or destroyed. Only the USS Arizona was left to sit on the bottom of Pearl Harbor.
To this day, it serves as a memorial to the U.S. lives lost.
The attack sparked one of the most iconic presidential speeches in history.
Then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Congress the next day, saying, "Dec. 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the U.S. was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."
Known as the “Day of Infamy” speech, the line has become synonymous with Pearl Harbor commemorations.