Last USS Arizona survivor from Pearl Harbor

[Armybrat 40850]

Still going at 101:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-101-year-old-is-the-last-living-survivor-of-pearl-harbors-uss-arizona-a97740c8 

 

[Anastasis 23473]

You must be really proud of your grandson. 

[South Austin 52515]

2 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

You must be really proud of your grandson. 

 

[Wally Fairway 5550]

Seeing this made me wonder about survivors of the USS Indianapolis - and there is only 1

https://www.historynet.com/how-sailor-survived-sinking-uss-indianapolis/

[Red Five 40859]

Kind of suspicious that he’s the only one not dead, if you ask me.

[Guadaloopy 10973]

1 hour ago, Red Five said:

Kind of suspicious that he’s the only one not dead, if you ask me.

[Carl Spackler 3483]

Although he wasn't on the Arizona, I thought this topic would be a good place to post this article about one of the last remaining Pearl Harbor survivors, who just passed away at the age of 102.  I was somewhat surprised that there are apparently still a couple dozen Pearl Harbor survivors with us -- they've all got to be at least 100 or very close to it.  Much respect to all of them for their service, and of course the 2,400 or so who did not survive the attack. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/one-few-remaining-pearl-harbor-101006368.html

 

[Macanudo 12979]

A friend of mine's mother was a kid living on Oahu in officer quarters during the attack.   Her father (friend's grandfather) was an officer stationed at Pearl.   There are still "survivors" just not sailors.

[Carl Spackler 3483]

26 minutes ago, Macanudo said:

A friend of mine's mother was a kid living on Oahu in officer quarters during the attack.   Her father (friend's grandfather) was an officer stationed at Pearl.   There are still "survivors" just not sailors.

Understood.  But the "couple dozen" figure I mentioned comprised people who, according to the article, were known by the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, which requires that members were military as of 12/7/41 and were on station or within 3 miles of Oahu at the time of the attack, so I assumed that figure referred only to military survivors of the attack.  No doubt there are many others, including civilians (such as your friend's mother), who were present at the time attack and are still living.

Edited March 21 by Carl Spackler

[atomheartbevo 89678]

1 hour ago, Carl Spackler said:

Understood.  But the "couple dozen" figure I mentioned comprised people who, according to the article, were known by the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, which requires that members were military as of 12/7/41 and were on station or within 3 miles of Oahu at the time of the attack,

Which means that at a minimum, anybody on active duty in 1941 would be turning 100 this year.

[Carl Spackler 3483]

14 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Which means that at a minimum, anybody on active duty in 1941 would be turning 100 this year.

Yep . . . unless they were underage (e.g., 16 y/o) at the time, which is possible -- I've read many accounts of kids who enlisted back in the 1920's and 30's who were under the age of 18.  They'd just fib when asked how old they were, and so many people didn't have access to birth records at the time that the military didn't really check closely.

But even in that scenario they would be in their late nineties at least.  That's why I was somewhat surprised that there are more than 20 people who were apparently military survivors of the attack.  That's quite a few folks in their late nineties or over 100 who were on the scene at the time.  Bless every single one of 'em.

[Frank Drebin 5640]

I get sad when thinking how few WW2 vets are left.  I remember in 1991 during the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor the military school I was at had a big ceremony and invited all the local WW2 vets to attend.  A ton of locals attended.  And many were still very middle aged looking.  Several of our staff were WW2 vets.  Some were at Guadalcanal or Iwo.  They had some stories.  Those guys are just about all gone.  

[atomheartbevo 89678]

1 hour ago, Carl Spackler said:

That's why I was somewhat surprised that there are more than 20 people who were apparently military survivors of the attack.  That's quite a few folks in their late nineties or over 100 who were on the scene at the time.  Bless every single one of 'em.

A quick glance, and in late 1941, Hawaii’s collective military garrison (US Navy, Marines, Army) was the largest US outpost outside of the Continental US.  The US Army alone had over 25,000 soldiers on Oahu (most at Schofield Barracks, some at Wheeler).

20 seems like a lot (and there’s just over 100,000 WWII vets still around), but those who were in the military before December, 1941, would have been promoted up the ranks rapidly as the military went up to 16.1 million Americans, so a lot of them might have been spared being cannon fodder.

[atomheartbevo 89678]

1 minute ago, Frank Drebin said:

I get sad when thinking how few WW2 vets are left.  I remember in 1991 during the 50th anniversary of Pearl Harbor the military school I was at had a big ceremony and invited all the local WW2 vets to attend.  A ton of locals attended.  And many were still very middle aged looking.  Several of our staff were WW2 vets.  Some were at Guadalcanal or Iwo.  They had some stories.  Those guys are just about all gone.  

Yeah,  I knew a lot of WW2 vets as a kid, had a few (or their wives) as teachers in the 70s and then all of the sudden it seemed like they were replace by Vietnam vets (and their wives).  And now those guys are in their 70s and up.

[Grande Mart 514]

My wife's grandfather was in one of the army air bases in Hawaii on Dec 7. He wouldn't talk about it much , but he did tell me once about dragging guys from a burning building, he had burn scars on his forearms. he was back in action by guadalcanal and served for the duration in the pacific. One of the most awesome guys I know. He was out drinking the night before since it was saturday night. He died recently at the age of 103.

In his 80's he helped me build a fence around a half acre lot in August in central Texas. In the afternoon, I got tired of working and said let's call it a day and finish up tomorrow. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "there's still daylight." So we kept working,

[Grande Mart 514]

26 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Yeah,  I knew a lot of WW2 vets as a kid, had a few (or their wives) as teachers in the 70s and then all of the sudden it seemed like they were replace by Vietnam vets (and their wives).  And now those guys are in their 70s and up.

I remember as a kid all the grandfathers were WW2 vets, some of the dads were vietnam vets. The old 100 year old guys that were dying were WW1 vets,---Growing up in the late 70's and 80's