On Dec. 7, 1941, Jesse Dunnagan stood in a gun station on the battleship U.S.S. California and watched as Japanese fighter planes attacked the United States’ naval fleet.

“I saw the Oklahoma turn over. I saw the Arizona blow up,” he said. “I had a ringside seat, which I didn’t really ask for.

Today, the Prairie Village resident is one of just four Johnson County survivors of the Pearl Harbor attacks. To honor his service, the city of Prairie Village issued a proclamation Monday declaring today, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 — the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks — Jesse Dunnagan Day.

Dunnagan joined the Navy in December 1940, and was assigned to duties as the gun director for the broadside guns on the California. He remembers hearing an announcement over the ship’s loud speakers calling for the crew to man their battle stations. During the attack that followed, the California was struck, and the crew had to abandon ship. Dunnagan had to plunge into the harbor and swim toward Ford Island a short distance away, diving under patches of flaming oil that were floating atop the waves. In the chaos that followed the attacks, he was initially reported missing in action and presumed dead.

But Dunnagan’s service was far from over. He went on to serve in the Navy for 30 years, fighting in nine more naval battles during World War II, and serving in the Korean War and Vietnam.

Dunnagan and the other area survivors will be honored at a event at the Sylvester Powell, Jr. Community Center in Mission, 6200 Martway, starting at 11:15 a.m. this morning.

To see an interview with him, visit the Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project.