Pearl Harbor Survivor To Be Honored By Vikings On Sunday

This Sunday, 7 December, will mark the 73rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i that brought the United States into World War II. The Minnesota Vikings will be honoring a local man that survived that attack during Sunday's game against the New York Jets.

SC1 Richard Thill was aboard the U.S.S. Ward at Pearl Harbor on that fateful day. The Ward fired the first American shots of World War II and sank a Japanese submarine.

Thill spent four and a half years at sea for the United States Navy during World War II, earning eight battle stars in various battles across the Pacific theater. Thill, who is 90 years old (if my math is right, per this article from the Pioneer Press), enlisted in 1940, joining the Naval Reserve. He was called to active duty a few months later, dropping out of Humboldt Senior High School to join the crew of the Ward as a cook.

The article from Vikings.com doesn't specify exactly how Thill will be honored on Sunday.

It's great to see the Vikings doing this for someone like Thill, who survived one of the darker days in American military history. I hope he gets the sort of tribute he deserves.