HISTORY: Oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor recounts ‘Day of Infamy’ to Colorado Springs students.

Retired Navy Lt. Jim Downing joked with the kids at Lewis-Palmer Middle School about the fragility that comes with being a 103-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor. He asked one girl to help him stand from his powered scooter. She pulled, and came away with a rubber hand.

But Downing, who will spend Wednesday in Hawaii and plans to give a speech at Pearl Harbor, had a more serious lesson for the students. Preventing the next Pearl Harbor, he said, is their responsibility.

“Keep America so strong that no tyrant will ever be tempted to attack us,” said Downing, who is believed to be the oldest living survivor of the attack that plunged America into World War II.

Indeed.

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