World War II Navy veteran Ira “Ike” Schab, one of the few survivors of the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 105 years old.
Her daughter Kimberlee Heinrichs told The Associated Press that Schab died at her home early Saturday in the presence of her and her husband.
With his passing, only a dozen survivors remain from the surprise attack, which killed just over 2,400 soldiers and propelled the United States into the war.
Schab was only 21 at the time of the attack, and for decades he rarely spoke about his experience.
But in recent years, aware that the number of survivors was dwindling, the centenarian made a point of traveling from his home in Beaverton, Oregon, to the annual celebration at the Hawaii military base.
“To give honor to the guys who didn’t make it,” he said in 2023.
For last year’s commemoration, Schab spent weeks gaining the strength to be able to stand and salute.
But this year he wasn’t well enough to attend and less than three weeks later he died.
Born on Independence Day in 1920 in Chicago, Schab was the oldest of three brothers.
He joined the Navy at 18, following in his father’s footsteps, he said in a February interview with Pacific Historic Parks.
On what began as a quiet Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, Schab, who played tuba in the band on the USS Dobbin, was awaiting a visit from his brother, a fellow serviceman assigned to a nearby naval radio station. Schab had just showered and put on a clean uniform when he heard a call to the fire department.
He went to the surface and saw another ship, the USS Utah, capsizing. Japanese planes roared through the air.
“We were quite surprised. Surprised and scared to death,” Schab recalled in 2023. “We didn’t know what to expect, and we knew that if anything happened to us, this would be it.”
He rushed below deck to collect boxes of ammunition and joined a chain of sailors feeding shells to an anti-aircraft gun above.
His ship lost three sailors, according to Navy records. One of them was killed in action and two later died from injuries caused by a bomb hitting the stern. All were equipped with an anti-aircraft gun.
Schab spent most of the war with the Navy in the Pacific, traveling to the New Hebrides, now known as Vanuatu, and then to the Mariana Islands and Okinawa, Japan.
After the war, he studied aerospace engineering and worked on the Apollo spaceflight program as an electrical engineer for General Dynamics, helping to send astronauts to the Moon.
Schab’s son also joined the Navy and is a retired commander.
Speaking at a ceremony in 2022, Schab asked people to honor those who served at Pearl Harbor.
“Remember why they are here. Remember and honor those who remain. They did a hell of a job,” he said. “Those who are still here, dead or alive.”
