Al Gort, 95, remembers exactly where he was when he first learned news of the Pearl Harbor attack. He was coming home from a Chicago Cardinals football game at Comiskey Park.

More than 2,400 Americans were killed on Dec. 7, 1941, during a surprise attack by the Japanese on the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack led to the United States declaring war on Japan and its entrance into World War II.

The news was so momentous that it helped land Gort and his brothers a job, he said.

“We got off the elevator [of our apartment], and a gentleman came by in a car and said, ‘Do you guys want to make some money?’ ” Gort said. “He hired us, and we were selling extra newspapers. There were more newspapers than usual because they bombed Pearl Harbor.”

Gort, who now lives at Randall Residences in McHenry, went on to serve during the war and was stationed in Germany, and later the Philippines.

The decision to enlist “was the smartest thing in my life,” Gort said. He learned responsibilities and how to take care of other people, and himself, during his service.

Joe Stanek, 90, a Korean War veteran who was mayor of McHenry from 1973 to 1985, recalled hearing the news about Pearl Harbor with his family as they sat together listening to the radio.

“It was a scary time,” Stanek said. “Everybody [in my house] just looked at everybody else and just said, ‘That means us, guys.’”

Another Korean War veteran, Bobby Wallen, said his family also was “scared to death.” As a kid, Wallen said he feared the Axis Powers were going to come to the United States; he also had two uncles who were drafted and served overseas.

“We were afraid they weren’t going to come back,” Wallen said.

With only a few years separating the two wars, veterans of World War II and the Korean War share comradery and common experiences, said Joan Foote, 89, one of 120,000 women who served in the Korean War.

“It’s such an important part of our history,” Foote said. “It’s going to be 80 years now. When we stopped in the base on Hawaii [on our way to Japan], the first thing we wanted to see was Pearl Harbor.”