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Soon, they'll all be gone. Seventy-one years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, fewer than ten Kansans who survived the bombings are still alive. Two received a special tribute at Friday's Wichita Thunder hockey game at Intrust Arena.
Paul Aschbrenner from Derby and Arthur Dunn from Belle Plaine were both on the U.S.S. Oklahoma when it took nine torpedoes from Japanese planes. Both abandoned ship before it capsized. But, 429 of their shipmates died.
"I couldn't talk about it for 45 years," Dunn says.
"What I remember most about that day," Ashbrenner says, "is why did the Lord spare me when so many other lives were lost?"
Both men were involved in the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association until it disbanded last year.
This was the first year without a major community observance on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Dunn and Aschbrenner say they were extremely grateful for the recognition at the Thunder hockey game.