MACON, Ga. — On Tuesday, the country will remember the 80th anniversary of a day America's greatest generation could never forget.
December 7, 1941 marks the attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the country into World War II.
That was also the day 20-year-old George Vining became Central Georgia's first casualty of the war.
"That morning when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he was one of many who were fatalities," President of Macon Cemetery Preservation Corporation Yolanda Latimore said.
Vining was a native of Macon's Pleasant Hill Community, and joined the Navy in 1940.
As an African American serving in America's segregated military, he was assigned to work as a mess attendant aboard the battleship USS California.
When Japanese planes attacked on the morning of December 7, everyone on board went to emergency battle stations.
Vining's job was to pass ammunition to gunners on the ship's deck.
The California was one of four battleships to sink that day.
Vining's body was later recovered and returned to Macon two years after the war.
He's buried at the historic Linwood Cemetery, next to his mother.
Macon's Vining Heights neighborhood off Anthony Road is named for him as is Vining Circle.
"He sacrificed his life for our freedom, not just for blacks, but for all. His story is very significant. He's from Macon, his mother and father lived here, and he went off and actually didn't get to live too long. He lived to 20 years old, so short lived, but very, very, very important life," Latimore said.
More than 400,000 Americans died in World War II. Around 300 of them from Bibb County.