Ivan Prall was working on his homework when he heard the radio report about a Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

“I didn’t rush off to enlist. I wasn’t old enough at the time to be drafted,” said Prall, 90, of Malta. “I bought a ’33 Plymouth for $90 that summer. That’s what I drove up to Rockford to enlist. I left it with my folks when I went off to war.”

Today is the 71st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the attack that paved the way for Prall’s drive to enlist in Rockford.