BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Some would say the calendar is already crammed with holidays, but Rep. Jack Quinn thinks there's room for one more.
John Kelly agrees. Kelly was eating breakfast in the mess hall at Pearl Harbor just before 8 a.m. on Dec. 7, 1941, when he heard popping sounds."Like a bunch of firecrackers," he said.
Kelly and his Army buddies ran to the door and looked up at a sky full of planes. He at first thought the Air Force was having maneuvers.
"Then I saw the symbol of the rising sun on one of the planes," Kelly said. "I could see the pilot. The landing gear was down. The planes were so low that if I had stood on top of the barracks, I could have reached up and grabbed one of them by the wheels."
Kelly joined Quinn, a Republican, in announcing legislation that would designate Pearl Harbor Day as a federal holiday.
The attack killed 2,403 men, women and children and drew the United States into World War II.
"Right now there is no day set aside to represent World War II," said the 78-year-old Kelly, a San Diego native and a member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
His 22 1/2 years of Army service included 11 months spent in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.
"What happened at Pearl Harbor brought this country together and made it the strongest country in the world," said Kelly, who moved to Buffalo in the early 1960s.
Quinn, chairman of the Veterans' Benefits Subcommittee, said the idea to promote Pearl Harbor Day came from veterans.
"Pearl Harbor marks one of the most significant dates in American history," said Quinn, who made his announcement at the Naval & Military Park on Buffalo's waterfront. "It put the United States into World War II and as a result of America's involvement in the war, it established our country as a dominant world power."
The bill is meeting with resistance from those who argue there already are too many holidays, including Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
"And that's true," Quinn said. "But if the United States hadn't responded to the events at Pearl Harbor, there wouldn't be any other holidays for us to talk about."