Posted on 12/05/2023 4:35:58 PM PST by Jyotishi
God Bless You Ike Schab.
Thanks for posting. He would have been 21 in 1941. Anyone at least 18 at the time of the bombing would be 100 or older now. It has been 78 years since the end of the war so virtually all surviving WWII veterans are 96 or older. My father was a WWII veteran but he passed away at age 94. He wasn’t at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, but had been stationed there earlier.
As Ike fades away, America fades away too.
My Dad and uncles joined up because of Pearl Harbor. They were all in the Pacific. They all made it back home.
God Bless the Greatest Generation!
Yes. God Bless that man.
He looks pretty good for 103.
You must be proud of your father! Thanks for sharing.
A friend of his in the Marines got a "Dear John" letter from his girlfriend so my father gave him his sister's address and they started corresponding--they later got married. They had 2 children and 7 grandchildren (I don't know how many great-grandchildren by now)--all people who would never have been born if not for that "Dear John" letter.
Very much so. Probably the finest person I have ever known, and “a Marine’s Marine.” Fought on Guam and Okinawa (2 Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star).
My father was there on the USS Phoenix. He was a young ensign just 23 years old. He told me that they were sitting ducks. It took 30 minutes for the boilers to generate enough pressure to generate the steam necessary to get underway and get out of the harbor. He passed in 1989.
On this day 82 years ago, the USS Arizona pulled into Pearl Harbor for the last time.
It had been a busy week for the Arizona and the Pacific Fleet. The fleet typically engaged in intense training exercises during the week before sailing into port for the weekend. Just the previous evening, Arizona and fellow battleships Nevada and Oklahoma had conducted a nighttime gunnery exercise. But now, as the fleet settled in, the ships and their crews were looking forward to a weekend of liberty and light duty before setting out to sea again.
As Arizona sailed into port, Quartermaster Lou Conter was at the helm. Today at 102 years old, Conter is the last living survivor of the ship. Carefully, he guided the Arizona into her berth, Fox 7, while the Oklahoma tied up alongside the battleship Maryland in Fox 5, and the Nevada into Fox 8. Before long, the repair ship USS Vestal would moor up alongside Arizona to conduct some minor repairs.
Though no one knew it at the time, the stage had been almost entirely set. When the fleet oiler USS Neosho arrived late on 6 December, all the vessels of Battleship Row would be in the place where history would find them on 7 December 1941.
On this day 82 years ago, the USS Arizona pulled into Pearl Harbor for the last time.
😢
Thank you, for that history.
Indeed.
Amen.
Looks like Ike went last year, too ... Good for Ike!
Wow, he looks fantastic.
My gramps was on the Hancock. Battle of Leyte Gulf timeframe.
Lot of officers he knew didn’t come back (pilots). You’d know them awhile, and one day, they weren’t there anymore.
He was in a compartment where a kamikaze pilot slammed into right next to him, so close he saw his face.
One ship around them was hit bad and started sinking, they threw ropes over and sped up the carrier so that it wouldn’t go down while they made emergency repairs. Like for a day or two.
All this and he was like 19. Had just been married a few months.
”I owe them. Just like that.”
No sir, you are paid in full. We are the ones with the unpaid debt.
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