2 Pearl Harbor survivors, ages 104 and 102, return to Hawaii to honor those killed 83 years ago
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii — Ira “Ike” Schab, a 104-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor, spent six weeks in physical therapy to build the strength to stand and salute during a remembrance ceremony honoring those killed in the Japanese bombing that thrust the U.S. into World War II 83 years ago.
On Saturday, Schab gingerly rose from his wheelchair and raised his right hand, returning a salute delivered by sailors standing on a destroyer and a submarine passing by in the harbor.
“He’s been working hard because this is his goal,” said his daughter, Kimberlee Heinrichs, who traveled to Hawaii with Schab from their home in Beaverton, Ore. “He wanted to be able to stand for that.”
Schab is one of only two servicemen who lived through the attack who made it to an annual remembrance ceremony hosted by the U.S. Navy and National Park Service on a grass field overlooking the harbor. A third survivor had been planning to join them but had to cancel because of health issues.
The Dec. 7, 1941, bombing killed more than 2,400 U.S. servicemen. Nearly half — 1,177 — were sailors and Marines aboard the USS Arizona, which sank during the battle. The remains of more than 900 Arizona crew members are entombed in the submerged vessel beneath a memorial in their honor.
Bob Fernandez was a sailor assigned to the USS Curtiss on Dec. 7, 1941. “I wish that they never would have come”
Dozens of survivors once joined the annual event, but their attendance has declined as survivors have aged. Today there are only 16 still living, according to a list maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. Military historian J. Michael Wenger has estimated there were some 87,000 military personnel on Oahu on the day of the attack.
Schab agreed when ceremony organizers asked him this year to salute on behalf of all survivors and World War II veterans.
“I was honored to do it,” he said. “I’m glad I was capable of standing up. I’m getting old, you know.”
Schab was a sailor on the USS Dobbin at the time of the attack, the tuba player in the ship’s band. He had showered and put on a clean uniform when he heard the call for a fire rescue party.
He hurried topside to see Japanese planes flying overhead and the USS Utah capsizing. He quickly went back below deck to join a chain of sailors feeding shells to an antiaircraft gun topside.
Ken Stevens, 102, of Powers, Ore., who served on the USS Whitney, joined Schab at the ceremony. USS Curtiss sailor Bob Fernandez, 100, had to cancel because of health issues.
Ceremony attendees observed a moment of silence at 7:54 a.m., the time the attack began more than eight decades ago. F-22 jets in missing-man formation flew overhead shortly after.
McAvoy writes for the Associated Press.
