By Curt Yeomans Walter Taylor was all over the Pacific Ocean as
a merchant marine during World War II. He spent time in New
Guinea, Iwo Jima, and the Philippines. The war came to all of
these places, and memorials have been built commemorating
battles in some of these locations. There is one place Taylor
went in 1941, where he barely missed being part of United States
history -- Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. In December of 1941, the
ship on which Taylor was stationed spent three days in Pearl
Harbor enroute to New Guinea. The ship dropped anchor to pick up
supplies before heading back to sea. "I had just left Pearl
Harbor the night before they [the Japanese] hit," said Taylor,
who is now 81, and lives in Jonesboro. Today marks the 66th
anniversary of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, which
President Franklin D. Roosevelt called "a day which will live in
infamy." Japanese airplanes bombed the naval fleet, and airfield
at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Five of eight American
battleships were sunk, while t