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From the first bullets fired to the very last, Joe Whitt earned more than 17 battle stars during World War II.

Now 84 years old, Whitt plans to share those memories with Lakota East High School students as the marching band prepares for a trip to perform in the Waikiki Holiday Parade Thanksgiving weekend. The parade commemorates the 67th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Whitt and his wife, Judy, will accompany the students on the trip.

"These kids will go to Pearl Harbor with someone who survived that horrible attack," said Barb Wilson, band communication director.

With the WWII generation diminishing each year, Wilson said it is important for students to hear the history told first hand. There also are plans to have Whitt speak to history classes and help students study to prepare for the experience.

Two years ago, Whitt and his wife went to Hawaii with Lakota West's band.

"We had such a good time with their group," he said. "We just kind of stuck to them and answered questions."

Whitt, who said he enlisted at the age of 17, much to his parents' dismay, weighed about 135 pounds and looked to be about 12 years old.

Eleven months later, Whitt found himself on the deck of the U.S.S. San Francisco.

As a member of the first division, Whitt's job was to steer the ship. On top of the world, he said, he thought nothing could go wrong — until Dec. 7, 1941.

Running in their dress whites, the crew picked up guns and fired at the low flying Japanese planes as bombs just missed their ship docked in port.

"I saw the Arizona blow up," Whitt said. "It was right there."

In the aftermath of the first of four attacks that morning, Whitt said everything got quiet as he observed the dead and wounded surrounded by a heavy smoke.

Ten minutes later, the attackers were back in waves. Six men on Whitt's ship died, a small number compared to the hundreds trapped in sinking ships.

"I'd never touched a dead person in my life," Whitt said. "They are heavier than they look and they were covered with oil all over their bodies. There were ships all around us on fire and exploding. We never got any sleep until Thursday after that. My mom and dad didn't know I was alive for 20 days. We just fought for surviva."

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5067.