A minute-by-minute dramatic interpretation of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor aboard the battleship U.S.S. Tennessee will be presented from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, in Tivoli 640. The performance is sponsored by Phi Alpha Theta, the history honors society, and History Professors Jennifer Wynot and Patricia Richard.

Nine battleships, including the U.S.S. Tennessee, were moored at Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. The Tennessee was hit by two bombs and was set afire when the U.S.S. Arizona exploded. Five of the Tennessee's crew were killed in the attack.

Four readers will tell the story of the sailors aboard the Tennessee in the first person, using hundreds of Tennessee sailor interviews and actual battle reports filed by the ships after the attack. Clifton Simmons, the historian for the U.S.S. Tennessee Reunion Association and a professional naval ship modeler, will act as narrator, with the narration in military time.

Special guests will include members of the Colorado Chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, their spouses and children.

"It's important for people to remember and understand what these men did for our country. This is a very special opportunity to learn more about Pearl Harbor and to meet some of the survivors," said Richard, whose father, George Richard, served on the U.S.S. Tennessee and will be in the audience.

In addition to Simmons as narrator, cast members are Herbert Betts, nephew of the U.S.S. Tennessee Pearl Harbor veteran Jessie Betts; History Professor Dolph Grundman, director of the college's Honors Program; Jeremy Hawthorne, a Metro State teacher education student; and Geoffrey Hunt, a Civil War historian and re-enactor who has served as a consultant and performer in the motion picture "Gettysburg."