America reflects back upon a day which lived in infamy 60 years ago: the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

After recent events, some Americans might look upon September 11 as a day which will live in infamy. For brothers Bob and Earl Holmes, Sunday, December 7, 1941, is their day which will live in infamy.

“I heard it when it came on and heard it when Roosevelt made his famous speech. I was riding with someone who was 35 years old; he was quite shocked: he turned around and came back to Charleston,” Bob, a Charleston resident, said.

After returning to Charleston that day, Bob told his father.

“I was about 11 years old at the time. I was so young it’s hard for me to remember,” Bob said.

However his brother remembers the events quite well. Earl, 15 years old at the time, was at his other brother, Bill McDivit’s, filling station in Westfield. “It made me mad. I kind of wanted to whip the Japanese. I thought it was uncalled for,” Earl said.

Earl joined the Air Corps, now known as the Air Force, on December 2, 1942. He was only 16 years old at the time.

“He lied about his age when he entered,” Earl’s brother Bob said.

“I liked flying, or at least I thought I would. It was exhilarating at first,” Earl said, explaining why he enlisted.

After being in Miami for basic training, he went to weather school in Chanute for five months, where he trained to be a meteorologist. From there, he went to San Francisco and Salt Lake City. His first battle experience came when he was shipped to the Philippines for the battle of Luzon.

“I was a little worried, a little scared. There were a lot of Japanese dying. They dropped dead bodies of Japanese in a cavern (in Manila),” Earl said.

After leaving the Philippines, he was shipped to New Guinea and then to Mapia Island, where he was when the war ended. “We were exuberant,” Earl said.

He was discharged in Camp Grant, Ill., after having been in the Air Corps for three years and three months. Upon discharge, Earl served as a staff sergeant in the 15th weather squadron overseas. After returning, he worked at Signal Depot in Decatur.

At the time of Pearl Harbor, Charleston was a quiet place. Lincoln Avenue was only two lanes and was half brick and gravel. “There was a swimming pool where McDonald’s is,” Bob said.

With the current war against terrorism, Earl thinks it is a good idea for young ones to enlist.

“I think it’s good for all young men to serve in the service,” he said. “It helped me a lot.”

Looking back, some individuals will remember Pearl Harbor as a day which lived in infamy. For some that day will be September 11. Nevertheless, both catastrophic events have been compared in the last two months.

“Pearl Harbor was much more involved but there were more people killed in New York,” Earl said.