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.

By Jay Blackman
NBC News

Long after the welcome home ceremonies, the standing ovations at sporting events and in airports, and the hugs and tears, reality sets in for veterans returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. For a large number of them, the new battle is for a full time job in an economy where so many other folks are out of work. The numbers tell the story. According to the United States Department of Labor, veterans who have served on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001 are experiencing a 12.1 percent unemployment rate, with young male vets under the age of 25 suffering the worst -- a 29.1 percent unemployment rate.

There is hope, however, in the form of job fairs sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The program, which started last year, hosted 100 job fairs nationwide, successfully pairing veterans with positions in the private sector.  This year, the Chamber of Commerce partnered with NBC Universal to host ‘Hiring our Heroes,’ and expanded the number of job fairs to 400.   

So far, 5,000 employers have hired more than 8,000 returning veterans.

Click here to find a job fair near you.

For one veteran, Marine Sgt. Edzavier Reese, it wasn't just his skills that got him a job, it was incredible timing and luck.  He had bounced from job to job in California after finishing his five deployments -- four to Iraq and one to Afghanistan -- but now Reese was looking for more.

"I was still stuck trying to be like, ‘I want to like something the way I like being in the Marines,’" he said.

Marine Sgt. Edzavier Reese found a job at GameStop in Atlanta, Ga., through the 'Hiring our Heroes' job fair.

Reese made the decision to return back home to Atlanta, Ga late last year. At first, he was going to take it slow, but once he got behind the wheel of his blue Mazda6, he decided to make the drive straight through, arriving at his mother’s house late afternoon.  A friend told him about a vets-only job fair at the Georgia Dome.  Reese wanted to take a nap, but said he knew he had to go.

"I went into the house, took a shower and shaved my head, and went over there," he said. 

When he got there, the fair was almost over.  As luck would have it, GameStop’s Mark Qualls noticed Reese. 

"I saw a guy coming through, great suit, shoulders back, walking straight, great presence -- he's got to come talk to me," said Qualls, a regional manager at the computer and video game retailer.  

After a brief conversation, Qualls saw in Reese what he says he sees in other returning veterans. "These days most of our veterans coming in have had some type of military service on the war front. So add to that high stress environment, a lot at stake -- quick decision making ability is really important -- and then lastly you have things like determination and honesty and honor and loyalty and that's not just words for them. They take an oath on that and they really believe it. So the better question is, ‘How can you not hire our veterans?’" 

Lisa Rosser, who is also a veteran, now runs a group called The Value of a Veteran, which helps organizations improve veteran recruitment. She says hiring veterans just makes good business sense.

"The military person has the skill sets you need,” she said.  Eighty-one percent of the jobs fit what you have in your organization, and the other skills that we bring are managerial and operational and training and leadership experience. What employer doesn't need those types of skills in their workplace?"

Reese was eventually offered a management trainee job at a GameStop in Atlanta. He says he is eager to get his own store soon. 

“I was pretty excited on the inside,” he said. “But like I said, you’ve got to maintain your cool, you have to.”  

For more on Hiring our Heroes, an initiative from NBC News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that aims to get veterans back into the workforce, click here. Learn more about job fairs for veterans here.