Today holds special meaning for twin brothers from Rochester. As the nation honors the 70th anniversary of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the 93-year-old brothers remember the fateful day.

YNN's Kate McGowan has the story.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — John VandenBrul and his identical twin, Al, live comfortably at St. Ann's Community in Rochester. Only rooms apart, the brothers often spend time together reminiscing about memories they've created with one another, and also about their time as sailors in the United States Navy.

"It just worked out that way, we were both at Pearl Harbor on the same ship," said John.

For John, and Al, it is a memory forever engrained in their minds.

Both aboard the USS Solace, a hospital ship, on December 7th, 1941, they recall seeing the bomber planes head toward shore.

"When I heard these four planes coming from the right, and I looked and here came four torpedo planes. I know they were torpedo planes because the torpedoes were fastened to the side.

John recalls waving to one of the incoming planes. He said he had no idea the man he was waving at was a Japanese bomber.

"I waved at him, and he waved back, you see. Then I saw the end of his plane, I saw a big bomb on it and I said to the fellows in the office, 'we're going to be bombed by the Japanese," said John.

"I don't think anybody thought they could come almost 8,000 miles to right in the United States and by never being discovered," said Al.

The Battleship Utah exploded right before John's eyes. More than 500 souls were on board. He would later come to know that the majority didn't make it out alive.

He said he didn't have time to be frightened by the attack, he just needed to act fast.

"We had so many wounded, we would be taking them to different islands and such," John said.

Al said, "Some of them were dead already. We didn't want to put the dead ones into a morgue, so we took them back in the after part of the ship, where they would sort them until they got time to take them to shore."

The devastation lasted for two hours. The twins said things for eerily quiet after the attack.

Al helped pull bodies from the water. John was in charge of putting together a list of the deceased, which included close to 2,000 men.

"I had to type up a roster of how many died on the battleship."

Looking back, both Al and John said the historical words from President Roosevelt ring true. It will always be a date, for them, which will live in infamy.

"It should be remembered, let's put it that way."