Terry Pickard / NBC News

Surviving sailors from the USS Franklin hold a reunion at Patriots Point in Charleston on Friday.

MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- Two dozen surviving veterans from the World War II aircraft carrier USS Franklin gathered on Friday, probably for the last time, to honor and remember one of the most remarkable naval episodes of the war.

It was before dawn on a late winter morning in 1945 when a Japanese dive bomber dropped two 500 pound bombs on the Franklin. The year-old carrier nicknamed “Big Ben” was serving in the Pacific theater and, at that moment, had maneuvered closer to Japan than any other U.S.-flagged carrier during the war.

Sam ‘Dusty’ Rhodes was asleep in the ship’s bunk area when the bombs hit. Rhodes was a water tender 3^rd class and was responsible for operating the ship’s massive boilers – and with debris from the massive explosions raining down on him, that is just what he did.

Rhodes said he and other crew members ran to the one of the unaffected firerooms and attempted to raise enough steam to light the remaining boiler. When the flame caught from Rhodes’ Zippo lighter, “that’s when the ship’s heart started to beat again,” he recalled.

Above on the flight deck, the scene was nothing short of catastrophic. The Franklin was dead in the water, listing to one side and cut off from communications as fires burned everywhere. More than 800 sailors died in the attack, with hundreds more wounded.

Terry Pickard / NBC News

Flags line the walkway to the USS Yorktown, where a '13' was painted to honor the number of the USS Franklin.

But the Franklin didn’t sink, and that is the legacy crew members like Rhodes like to remember. The Franklin would become the most heavily damaged aircraft carrier of the war to make it back to port.

“We saved the ship,” Rhodes said. “In the Navy, you save the ship. It’s your home.”

William Schauer was a Naval electrician and fireman 1^st class, just out of high school when he reported for duty on the deck of the Franklin, three months before the attack. Looking back on that day 68 years later, he said he was certain he was going to go down with the ship that morning, and “that was the end.”

“But we were there for a purpose,” and despite suffering such heavy losses, Schauer says he still considers their mission – keeping the ship afloat – accomplished.

At the reunion on Friday, Medal of Honor recipient and retired Gen. James Livingston saluted the assembled veterans. He said their “refusal to allow her to sink” allowed the Franklin to limp back to port instead of ending up buried forever on the ocean floor. “That’s a testimony to what you are as men,” he said.

Terry Pickard / NBC News

The tattered battle flag from the USS Franklin hangs on display at the USS Yorktown.

In the belly of the USS Yorktown, another decommissioned carrier that saw battle in the Pacific and now survives as the centerpiece of the Patriots Point Naval Museum in this bucolic Charleston suburb, a tattered and smoke-tinged flag is mounted overhead. It was the original battle flag that flew on the mast of the Franklin’s flight deck the day of the attack -- the same flag that Rhodes remembers looking up and noticing through the haze of black smoke after the bombs hit. Seeing it meant they still had a chance, he remembered, “because we would strike the colors before abandoning ship.”   

“Big Ben” made it all the way back to New York for repairs, where it sat on V-J Day when the war finally ended. It never saw action again, and was sold for scrap in the 1960s. The flag, along with the bell and a gun turret also on display at the Yorktown, are all that remain of one of the most momentous spectacles of heroism and fortitude of World War II. And with what could be the final gathering of the men who saved the ship, it is up to a new generation to remember the Franklin.

Rick Lee / Office of the Mayor

Charleston, W.V., Mayor Danny Jones issued a statement saying he was "relieved" when his son was arrested on a drug charge and asked law enforcement to treat him the same as anyone else.

A West Virginia mayor issued an extraordinary statement Thursday after his son was arrested on cocaine charges, saying he was "relieved" and begging law-enforcement not to go easy on him.

"I know that the only things that might save his life are isolation and yes, incarceration," Charleston Mayor Danny Jones wrote in an email to reporters after his 23-year-old son Zachary was busted for the third time in five years.

"If in jail or prison, I know that Zac has a better chance at living than on the outside. This is because Zac is a hopeless drug addict who has broken the heart and the will of everyone and anyone who has tried to help him," the statement continued.

Jones told NBC News that it was "heartbreaking" to write those words, but he believes tough love is the only answer for his son. He said his son's mother had custody of him growing up but that he also had a close relationship with him.

Charleston, W.V., police department

Zachary Jones, son of the mayor of Charleston, W.V., was arrested Thursday on a drug charge. His father said he was relieved and thinks jail will save his life.

"I've done everything a parent could do to try and help him," he said. "He's been detoxed at least a half-dozen times and I paid to put him through rehab twice."

Charleston police confirmed that Zachary Jones was arrested for driving under the influence in 2008, pleaded guilty and was fined $100. He was arrested for heroin possession in 2011; the case was dismissed after he completed rehab and agreed to enter the military, which he failed to do, his lawyer said.

On Thursday morning, police conducting a traffic stop arrested Jones, along with a 24-year-old Detroit man, and charged both with possession of an ounce of cocaine with intent to deliver, according to the criminal complaint.

The young man is being held in the local jail in lieu of $25,000 bond.

William Forbes, an attorney who represented the son in the heroin case and was retained again Thursday, said his client told him "he loves his father and understands" why he made the statement.

“He’s a really, really nice kid with a really bad addiction problem,” Forbes said, adding that he counseled his client to stay in jail for the moment. “The mayor loves in his son very much.”

When the younger Jones was escorted by officers out of the police station, his father, the assistant mayor and the police chief stood in a line and stared at him.

"I could tell from his body language -- he hung his head and kind of shook his head -- that he was maybe embarrassed," said Police Chief Brent Webster.

Webster said the mayor had spoken to him in the past about his son's drug problem.

"He's told me, 'I don't want to get a call at two in the morning that he's been killed. I'd rather hear he's in jail," the police chief said.

The mayor said that in 2011, a friend bailed his son out of jail. He hopes that doesn't happen this time.

"I plead with those in the law-enforcement, judicial and jail and prison system to treat my son no better or worse than any other defendant," he said in his statement. "My son does not need anyone to save him from taking this life-saving fall."

The mayor, who said he has been sober for 19 years, said he hopes his statement will be a "moment of clarity" for his son and inspire other parents facing a similar situation to take action.

He said he also wanted to make it clear that he has never tried to use his position to get his son off the hook.

Asked whether some people might find his comments harsh, he said, "I don't care. Anybody who thinks it's really harsh hasn't dealt with this on a personal basis."

"I think the only place that's safe for him is jail, and I'm sorry to say it," he added.