LIVE OAK, Fla. — The day before Virginia Stebbins turned 3 years old, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Stebbins’ father was stationed in Oahu for only a few months and was in charge of the officers’ club. The night before the attack, a Saturday, her father spent the night drinking with the other officers.

 Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, Stebbins said her mother had to wake up father, who was hung over. She was very young but she remembers her father rushing to get dressed and a large army truck pulling up to their home.

“The truck is what really stuck with me from that day,” Stebbins said. “We had to get in to evacuate. All I remember is that I was really excited.”

Her mother told Stebbins to collect all her baby brother’s things. She ran around their home in Hawaii grabbing baby toys and bottles before climbing into the back of the army truck. 

The last thing she remembers about that trip is resting her head in her mother’s lap and falling asleep.

Her father survived the attack on Pearl Harbor, which began just before 8 a.m. 75 years ago. 

Now, Stebbins lives in Suwannee County and remembers the sacrifices people like her father made when hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii.

 The barrage lasted two hours and killed 2,403 American soldiers and wounded another 1,000. The attack also destroyed or damaged 19 American naval vessels and more than 300 airplanes, according to the National World War II Museum.

After the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan and American took its first step into World War II.