MORGANTOWN — Spent shells from an honor guard’s 21-gun volley could be heard clinking off the concrete of West Virginia University’s Oglebay Plaza on a cold Friday morning. It was a tiny sound — but that didn’t stop it from carrying decibels of devotion.

Because it was all for the sailors and civilians who found themselves in the maelstrom of Pearl Harbor 84 years ago.

It took two squadrons of Japanese fighter planes less than two hours to decimate America’s entire U.S. Navy fleet in the Pacific.

A total of 2,403 sailors and civilians were killed in the assault.

Those planes roaring back over the ocean left in their 92 ruined, burning warships that were bound for the bottom of the harbor.

One of them was the USS West Virginia — or, the “Wee-Vee,” as she was known by her shipmates.

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