Frazier History Museum honors veterans during Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The Frazier History Museum honored a local Pearl Harbor survivor Tuesday.

The museum in downtown Louisville hosted a ceremony with 26 World War II veterans in attendance 80 years after the attack on the U.S. naval base in Honolulu.

During the ceremony, officials paid tribute to 100-year-old David Payne of Hardin County, who was at Pearl Harbor during the day when more than 2,400 U.S. personnel were killed.

Payne's daughter wrote a letter revealing what happened after he heard the explosions from his barracks and saw the damaged fleet.

"He would throw on his clothes and start helping to tow American B-18 bombers to dispersal area to save them," Rachel Platt, the Frazier History Museum's director of community engagement, said while reading the letter. "He told the newspapers later he would fire off shots from his 45-caliber pistol at low-flying enemy planes flying about 10 feet off the ground, strafing us."

Payne stayed in the military for 21 years before retiring. He then served as a police officer in Panama.

The ceremony also featured military vehicles and memorabilia.