The strains of taps, trumpeted by West Mifflin Area High School seniors Mario Amoroso and Shaun Umpleby, drifted through a hangar at Allegheny County Airport yesterday.

Moments earlier, a solemn and proud audience had heard the recorded voice of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, proclaiming Dec. 7, 1941, as "a date which will live in infamy."

Veterans, young people, musicians and public officials came together to mark the 66th anniversary of Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that swept the United States into World War II.

"We are here to remember ... to remind people that we have to be ever vigilant," said Joseph Popovich, commander of Intrepid Post 914 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which has sponsored a Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day every year since the 50th anniversary of the attack.

The guest of honor was the post's sole remaining Pearl Harbor survivor, Bernard Ordos, 88, of West Mifflin. He was an Army private guarding an ammunition depot at Schofield Barracks on Oahu, Hawaii, when the first Japanese planes appeared.

Mr. Ordos, seated at the dais with his wife of 67 years, Betty, said memories of the early morning attack are with him "every day."

Like many who attended yesterday's event, Mr. Ordos offered praise to the men and women of today's armed forces. "I just hope everybody sees what these soldiers are doing today. They deserve everything they can get," he said.

West Mifflin High School's Wind Ensemble, directed by Devon Smeal, played a medley of service songs, starting with "Heave Ho! My Lads Heave Ho!" for the Merchant Marines and concluding with the Navy's "Anchors Aweigh."

Veterans were invited to stand as their service's song was played. Some did so with the help of canes or loved ones.

Mike Kemple, 80, of Elizabeth Township, a member of the color guard who served in the Merchant Marines and Army, received his World War II medals -- more than a half-century late.

"I feel honored," Mr. Kemple said after U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy presented the medals, along with a letter of congratulations from President Harry S. Truman. "I hope that what we did will give others a chance to live in peace."

Among the several hundred attendees at yesterday's ceremony were about 80 students from the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, which is headquartered at the county airport.

"We came to show our respect," said Joshua Giambroni, 26, an Ohioan who is living in Munhall while he studies to be an aviation technician. The students recently concluded studies of World War II history and were keenly aware of the significance of the event being remembered.

The attack killed nearly 2,400 and wounded more than 1,000. Nineteen naval vessels, including eight battleships, were sunk or severely damaged and 188 aircraft destroyed.

"It was a day of tragedy, a day of so many tears," Mr. Murphy said. "It was a day that galvanized our nation."

In Hawaii yesterday, survivors and their relatives dedicated a new memorial for the USS Oklahoma, which lost 429 sailors and Marines -- the second greatest loss of life among any of the battleships in Pearl Harbor.

About 18 of the estimated 90 living survivors who were aboard the Oklahoma were expected to attended the dedication of the $1.2 million memorial, which includes 429 white marble standards, each with the name of a fallen sailor or Marine.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who witnessed the Pearl Harbor attack as a 17-year-old high school senior and who later received the Medal of Honor for fighting in Europe, said he hoped the ceremony would cause people to think of those serving today.

"There are over 1.4 million in many countries, not just Iraq and Afghanistan, serving us, ready to stand in harm's way for us," he said this week. "And there are an equal number of families, children and wives and husbands spending time at home thinking about them."