LOS ANGELES, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Some U.S. veterans gathered here on Friday for a ceremony to mark the 66th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack that plunged the United States into World War II.

    Speaking at the ceremony were two veterans -- Robert Thomas, who won the Navy Cross for bravery during the battle, and Jack Ray Hammett, who was a Navy corpsman who spent the first three days after the attack treating the wounded.

    Thomas, now 88, was aboard the battleship Nevada commanding a 5-inch antiaircraft battery and suffered shrapnel wounds in his legs and right wrist, but remained on deck giving orders until collapsing.

    "I was probably going into shock, because I felt so safe and serene, even while the attack continued," Thomas said.

    Thomas retired from the Navy in 1964 as a captain and later became Orange County's first chief administrative officer. The county hall of administration is named after him.

    Hammett, a former Costa Mesa mayor, may well owe his life to a chief petty officer. Weeks before the attack, he had been ordered to the USS Arizona, but because he was married, the petty officer sent a different corpsman, who was killed in the attack, Hammett said.

    The attack on Dec. 7, 1941, left 2,403 Americans dead, including 1,177 aboard the Arizona.

    In his National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day proclamation, President George W. Bush wrote, "When it mattered most, an entire generation of Americans stepped forward to protect our freedom and to defend liberty. Their devotion to duty and willingness to serve a cause greater than self helped secure our future and our way of life."