Yesterday was the 69th anniversary of the sneak attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor.

Thousands of our brave unsuspecting soldiers and sailors and Marines were killed. Many remain resting below the blue waters of the Hawaiian military base.

Yesterday, we heard two World War II veterans, Sam Marshall and Bud Hipps, talk to the Covington Rotary about their experiences on Iwo Jima.

There are lessons to be learned from the attack on Pearl Harbor on being unprepared. We can only hope, pray, and encourage our government to be ever vigilant, especially in this high-tech world we live in.

We salute with the greatest of pride our local World War II veterans.

Without you and the hundreds of thousands of your buddies that lie in peaceful repose around the world, we would not be writing, nor would our readers be reading, this editorial.