Nashua Telegraph 12/7/11: Pearl Harbor, WWII action vivid for some. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a call to action for millions of Americans. Thousands of young men and women could barely wait to enlist in the armed services to defend America. Count Wayland native Pete Ziner, 88, among them. He was a sophomore at Northeastern University in Boston when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He stayed in school until July 1943, then enlisted as an aviation cadet in the Army Air Corps, now the U.S. Air Force. “When we first got into the war, I was anxious to get into the service,” he said. “I thought I would stay in school for a while, but ultimately, I just had to get in. The whole country was involved. I felt it was my duty, particular because my father had served in World War I.” Ziner, at age 22, was one of 10 men on the plane that completed the final bombing mission on Japan in 1945. Only Ziner, the crew’s radar operator, and the flight navigator are still alive today, he said. That trip was the longest bombing mission in World War II, he said, spanning 3,700 miles around the country. The flight lasted 17 hours. Near the end of the flight, Ziner and his crew members heard over the radio that the Japanese had surrendered. The war was over.