Robert Arant Jr. served aboard the USS Breese, which was docked in Pearl Harbor during the 1941 attack. Mr. Arant says one difference between Pearl Harbor and Tuesday's attack is that in World War II, America knew exactly who and where the enemy was. ANNETTE M. DROWLETTE/STAFF

Dec. 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor.

The two incidents, roughly 60 years apart, represent the most devastating attacks on America by a foreign enemy, and many people are calling Tuesday's tragic events a second Pearl Harbor.

The two have much in common. Both were sneak attacks on American soil. Both, some say, could have been avoided were it not for lapses in U.S. intelligence. Both reminded the nation that it's vulnerable. Both left citizens horrified, fearful and thirsty for revenge.

But there's one important difference. Because of mass media, the whole country, and perhaps most of the planet, has been able to watch the latest attack. Few Americans can say they were witness to both, and in time, that number will steadily dwindle.

To help put Tuesday's events into perspective, The Augusta Chronicle spoke with several World War II veterans who were at Pearl Harbor when Japanese dive bombers attacked the naval base.

Here is what they said:

Roger L. Reid and his wife heard a newscaster say a fire had broken out in the World Trade Center. Like many Americans, they saw on their television screen the image of the north tower afire, with smoke billowing up.

Then they saw the second plane slice into the south tower.

The reality of what was happening hit Mr. Reid, a 79-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor living in Thomson.

''That brought a lot of memories back for me,'' he said. ''All the people that were killed and how helpless they were against the things that were happening - I just thought about Pearl Harbor a lot.''

When the Japanese planes flew into Hawaii, Mr. Reid was a 19-year-old corporal assigned to the Army's 19th Infantry Regiment, standing in the chow line at Schofield Barracks, located on the same island as the harbor. He remembers the smoke, and bombs blowing up planes, hangars and barracks.

There was panic, he said, until the soldiers came to their senses and broke out machine guns and ammo. They managed to shoot down a fighter plane that fell in the town of Wahiawa.

That is a big difference between Pearl Harbor and the 2001 attack: At Pearl Harbor, Americans had a chance to fight back.

''It made us feel awful good that we got that one down,'' Mr. Reid said. ''Of course, it was just a drop in the bucket.''

He went on to fight in several campaigns in the Pacific, and in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Mr. Reid said Tuesday's terror attack is a much worse catastrophe than the one that brought the country into World War II because the terrorists used our people as weapons against us.

He said he wants to see the perpetrators punished, but he couldn't say how that should be done.

''I'm with the president,'' Mr. Reid said. ''Whatever his decision is, I think it will be the right one.''

Robert Arant Jr. was headed toward the mess hall of the ship he served on - docked in Pearl Harbor - when the call for general quarters was sounded.

''I had just got up,'' the 85-year-old North Augusta resident said. ''When they sounded general quarters, I knew at that time that something was wrong.''

He said that day will always be etched in his mind, just like Sept. 11.

''I think they're both similar,'' he said. ''We knew terrorists were out there and not enough was being done to stop them. We were doing all that talking, and they were sneaking in behind our backs.''

But a major difference between the two is that America knew who the enemy was then. Not so this time, and Mr. Arant said that makes people feel helpless.

''When it happened at Pearl, we knew right away who it was,'' he said. ''There, I had some way of retaliating. This time we don't know.''

Mr. Arant, a gunners mate first class, was stationed on the USS Breese, a destroyer minelayer, when the first wave of Japanese dive bombers attacked the naval base at 7:55 a.m.

He learned about Tuesday's attack shortly after 9 a.m., as he walked into his favorite barbershop to get a haircut.

He was working in Manhattan when the World Trade Center was being built and had a special affinity for the twin 110-story towers.

''When they were building them, I thought they were nuts,'' said Mr. Arant, who retired from the Navy after 31 years of service. ''I just can't picture New York without them now. They became a landmark. Probably more of a landmark than the Statue of Liberty.''

Louis Hatcher, 83, knows firsthand the despair many rescue workers in New York might be feeling as time gets short on finding survivors in the rubble of the collapsed World Trade Center towers.

He felt the same way Dec. 7, 1941, when many men were trapped in ships capsized in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

''In Pearl Harbor, we had a lot of ships turned over, and people would be tapping on the sides from inside,'' the Graniteville resident said. ''We would hear the tapping, but we couldn't get to them. It was terrible to know they were in there alive and we couldn't get them out.''

Mr. Hatcher also considers Tuesday's attacks a second Pearl Harbor, only worse.

''There's a lot more people killed,'' he said about Tuesday's attacks. ''A lot more innocent people.''

The attack on Pearl Harbor killed about 2,400 Americans; the death toll from the terrorist attacks could more than double that number.

Mr. Hatcher, a water tender first class stationed in the boiler room of the light cruiser USS Honolulu, recalled how, on that fateful day 60 years ago, a number of sailors thought it was a drill when general quarters was sounded.

''Everybody was fussing that they were holding drills on a Sunday morning,'' said Mr. Hatcher, 83. ''Then the officer came over the intercom and said that this wasn't a drill and man your battle stations.''

Like those people who made it out of the twin towers before they collapsed, Mr. Hatcher knows something about narrow escapes.

As he and others worked feverishly to stoke the boilers to get the ship underway as Japanese dive bombers attacked, a 500-pound armor-piercing bomb exploded in the water beside the ship, opening a gaping hole in its side.

''If it was 12 to 15 feet over, I wouldn't be here today,'' said Mr. Hatcher, who left the Navy in December 1945.

He said he expects the country to pull together as it did after Pearl Harbor and triumph in any military actions it takes against those responsible for Tuesday's tragic events.

''We will see it through,'' Mr. Hatcher said. ''I just wish I was younger and could help them out.''

Reach Mike Wynn at (706) 823-3218 or Johnny Edwards at (706) 823-3225.