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World War II Navy veteran Ira “Ike” Schaub, one of the dwindling number of survivors of 1941 Japani Died in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He was 105 years old.
Daughter Kimberly Henriques told The Associated Press that Sheb died early Saturday at home in the presence of her and her husband.
Following his demise, only about a dozen survivors of the surprise attack that left more than 2,400 soldiers dead and on their way remain. United States of America In war.
Schaub was just a 21-year-old sailor at the time of the attack, and for decades he rarely spoke about the experience.
But in recent years, aware that the number of survivors was dwindling, the centenarian decided to make the journey from his home in Beaverton, oregonfor the annual celebration Airport military base.
He said in 2023, “to honor those who could not succeed.”
For last year’s commemoration, Schaab spent several weeks building the strength to be able to stand and salute.
But this year he did not feel well enough to participate and died less than three weeks later.
Born on Independence Day in 1920 chicagoShabab was the eldest of three brothers.
Following in his father’s footsteps, he joined the Navy at age 18, he said in a February interview for Pacific Historic Parks.
What started as a peaceful Sunday on December 7, 1941, Schaub, who played tuba in the band of the USS Dobbin, was hoping to visit his brother, a fellow service member assigned to a nearby naval radio station. Sheb had just taken a bath and put on a clean uniform when he heard a call for fire rescue.
He went to the top and saw another ship, the USS Utah, capsized. Japanese planes were roaring in the air.
“We were very shocked. Shocked and scared to death,” Shaab recalled in 2023. “We didn’t know what to expect, and we knew that if anything happened to us, this would be it.”
He hurried back below deck to pick up boxes of ammunition and joined the daisy chain of sailors feeding shells to an anti-aircraft gun above.
According to naval records, his ship lost three sailors. One was killed in action, and two later died of wounds from bomb fragments struck in the stern. Everyone had anti-aircraft guns in their hands.
Scabb spent most of the war with the Navy in the Pacific, visiting the New Hebrides, now known as Vanuatu, and then the Mariana Islands and Okinawa, Japan.
After the war he studied aerospace engineering and worked as an electrical engineer for General Dynamics on the Apollo space flight program, helping send astronauts to the Moon.
Shab’s son also joined the Navy and is a retired commander.
Speaking at a 2022 ceremony, Shaub asked people to honor those who served at Pearl Harbor.
“Remember what they came here for. Remember and honor those who survived. They did a great job,” he said. “Those who are still here, dead or alive.”