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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- This coming December marks the 70th anniversary of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

Saturday's Colorado Springs Veterans Parade did more than honor our veterans, they honored Pearl Harbor survivors.

To pay tribute to their years of service, George Blake, Bill Browning, Jim Downing, John Eck, Walter Himmelberg, Frank Mack and Donald Stratton were all the grand marshals of the parade.

An eighth survivor was added at the last minute.

"When a little kid comes up and gives you a thank you note, it makes you feel warm," John Lamerson, a Colorado Springs Veterans Day Parade organizer, said.

It's been nearly seven decades since the beginning of the attack of seven moored battleships on "Battleship Row," but it's a memory they won't forget.

Jim Downing, Gunners Mate First Class, USS West Virginia had just married and was off-ship when he heard the explosions.

"By time I got aboard 20 minutes later, all I could do is try to put out fires to keep ammunition from blowing up. So I spent my time taking care of the dead and wounded trying to put fires out," Downing said.

Back on Dec. 7, 1941 Donald Stratton, Seaman First Class, 6th Division, Boat deck, USS Arizona was one deck above the bridge of the Arizona.

He was working on the ship when he realized that the Japanese had attacked the area.

"A fireball went about 800 feet up and engulfed us, the crew was all burned up. I was burned over 65 percent of my body," Stratton said.

While each of the men honored in Saturday's parade have different memories of the Japanese military strike, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "It's a date which will live in infamy."

It is a key part of American history the Pearl Harbor survivors don't want to forget.