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Pearl Harbor
World War II Navy veteran Ira Ike Schab, one of the dwindling number of survivors of the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 105. Daughter Kimberlee Heinrichs told The Associated Press that Schab died at home early Saturday in the presence of her and her husband. With his passing, there remain only about a dozen survivors of the surprise attack, which killed just over 2,400 troops and propelled the United States into the war. Schab was a sailor of just 21 at the time of the attack, and for decades he rarely spoke about the experience. But in recent years, aware that the corps of survivors was dwindling, the centenarian made a point of traveling from his home in Beaverton, Oregon, to the annual observance at the Hawaii military base. To pay honour to the guys that didn't make it, he said in 2023. For last year's commemoration, Schab spent weeks building up the strength to be able to stand and salute. But this year he did not feel well enough to attend, and les
A handful of centenarian survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor are expected to gather at the scene of the Japanese bombing on Wednesday to commemorate those who perished 81 years ago. That's fewer than in recent years, when a dozen or more travelled to Hawaii from across the country to pay their respects at the annual remembrance ceremony. Part of the decline reflects the dwindling number of survivors as they age. The youngest active-duty military personnel on December 7, 1941, would have been about 17, making them 98 today. Many of those still alive are at least 100. About 2,400 servicemen were killed in the bombing, which launched the US into World War II. The USS Arizona alone lost 1,177 sailors and Marines, nearly half the death toll. Robert John Lee recalls being a 20-year-old civilian living at his parent's home on the naval base where his father ran the water pumping station. The home was just about 1 mile (1.6 kilometres) across the harbor from where the USS Arizona was .