Dick Higgins nearly missed his final return to Pearl Harbor 80 years after he survived the Japanese attack.

An emergency flash flood warning the night before Tuesday’s ceremony in Honolulu kept the 100-year-old Bend resident, and four generations of his family, stranded in their hotel in Waikiki.

But by sunrise Tuesday, the flooded streets had cleared. Higgins took an Uber with his daughter, grandson and caregiver to the commemoration at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. Still, Higgins was running late to the moment he had promised would happen.

Bulletin photographer Ryan Brennecke and I were anxiously waiting for Higgins at the Navy’s Kilo Pier, realizing it was already a few minutes past 7:30 a.m., when the ceremony was supposed to start.

We shouldn’t have doubted his resolve. His presence may have seemed like a longshot in 2016, when he said he would attend. But he wanted to honor those who died Dec. 7, 1941, and kept defying the odds. He celebrated his 100th birthday in July with his dream intact.

Higgins was the last veteran to arrive Tuesday. And he knew how to make an entrance.

All 800 guests and media from around the world watched as Higgins was pushed in his wheelchair to a seat reserved for him in the front row. He was seated next to the ceremony’s keynote speaker, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro, leaving the audience wondering if Higgins was an important dignitary.

“Maybe they will send us to the back when they find out we are normal people,” said Higgins’ daughter Vicki Bolling, who sat next to her father during the ceremony.

Higgins was seated in time for the moment of silence at 7:55 a.m., the exact time the attack on Pearl Harbor began when Japanese bombs dropped out of the skies over Oahu.

“It will probably be the last time I’ll be able to make it,” Higgins told me before the ceremony. “I just want to visit old surroundings and honor the ones who didn’t quite make it.”

Higgins shared that realization with a dose of his humor.

“But I’m just a kid. I’m only 100,” Higgins added with a smile. “I don’t know what I want to do when I grow up.”

Brennecke and I first met Higgins and his family in 2016, when they were preparing to attend the 75th anniversary ceremony in Honolulu. Higgins made the trip to Hawaii at 95. That’s when Higgins vowed to return for the 80th.

In the five years that followed, Brennecke and I would cover Higgins’ attendance at Pearl Harbor ceremonies at Brooks Park in Bend. And in the last 12 months, we covered his recovery from COVID-19, his 100th birthday and his bout of pneumonia three weeks before this year’s trip.

Each milestone brought Higgins’ goal closer to a reality.

On Tuesday, he added another milestone. He used all his might to slowly stand and salute the American flag that waved on the pier, across the harbor from Ford Island, where he served as a 20-year-old Navy first class radioman, running for his life near exploding planes.

Once Tuesday’s ceremony was over, Brennecke and I returned to our hotel to file our work on deadline. But the celebration continued for Higgins.

He and his family toured the Pearl Harbor National Memorial, a waterfront landmark that looks out across a channel at the gleaming white USS Arizona Memorial.

Higgins spent the afternoon signing autographs and taking pictures with strangers who wanted to introduce themselves and thank him for his service. Tuesday night, Higgins watched the annual Waikiki Holiday Parade that also commemorates the attack on Pearl Harbor. He sat in his wheelchair on the sidewalk and watched as classic cars, floats and marching bands passed by. It was a joyous event to celebrate survivors like Higgins.

When Higgins left Honolulu the next day, the honors continued.

On his flight to the Los Angeles International Airport, where he would connect with a flight to Redmond, the pilot introduced him to the other passengers and everyone sang “God Bless America.”

Then the pilot called ahead to the Los Angeles airport and set up a surprise welcome. Airport staff made signs and held an American flag, as Higgins was wheeled off the airplane.

The crowd of about a hundred airline staff and curious travelers cheered. Higgins had the biggest smile I have ever since in the five years I’ve known him.

“I think they called ahead and printed pictures and did the whole bit,” said a shocked Ryan Norton, who is married to Higgin’s granddaughter.

Higgins had an hour until his final flight to Redmond. He spent it taking pictures with people and sharing his stories.

Higgins had often said his motivation to return to Pearl Harbor was to ensure others never forgot what happened on Dec. 7, 1941.

By the end of the night in Los Angeles airport, he had done that one more time.