Free Republic

MILWAUKEE -- Ed Miklavcic said the secrets to his longevity are simple: He took care of himself and worked hard. It showed on Wednesday at American Family Field, where the 105-year-old Miklavcic, a World War II veteran and the second-oldest living survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, threw a ceremonial first pitch for the ages prior to the Tigers-Brewers game. Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick and manager Pat Murphy were among those who visited with Miklavcic before his pitch. He is one of 15 veterans of Pearl Harbor alive today after this week’s passing of 106-year-old Vaughn P. Drake Jr....

At 106 years old, Vaughn Drake Jr. was the oldest known survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor until his death on April 7, according to his obituary. Born Nov. 6, 1918, in Winchester, Kentucky, Drake served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. He saw the battles of Pearl Harbor and Saipan in the Marianas, collecting an array of honors including the special congressional medal for Pearl Harbor veterans and the World War II Victory Medal. In 2016, the Lexington Herald-Leader sat down with Drake to record some of his memories of the fateful attack on...

Poor Jon Meacham. The resident Morning Joe historian and occasional Biden speechwriter was in a decidedly dark and depressed mood on this Inauguration Day. Just look at the guy! Meacham was down on the United States in general, claiming that "for 250 years, [America] more often than not has gotten things wrong." And he was down on Trump in particular. Meacham compared, albeit via a John Belushi line, Trump's impending presidency to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Meacham addressed himself to his fellow Trump detesters. He warned them that the days ahead will be "hard" and "depleting," and acknowledged that...

Pearl Harbor attack, (December 7, 1941), surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles E Daugherty. Daugherty joined the Navy in 1939. He received basic training at Great Lakes and was aboard the USS California (BB-44) during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He remained at his battle station as a phone talker, nearly suffocating as the ship’s ventilation system malfunctioned. When the order was given to abandon ship, Daugherty was carried up two flights of stairs. Then a ferry came by and Daugherty stepped aboard, hiding in a sand pile for the remainder of the attack. The next day, he returned...

[Video] Ira “Ike” Schab Jr. of Portland is one of the few remaining survivors of that day, and the only one left from the USS Dobbin. HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- A 104-year-old respected war veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor is back in Hawaii. Ira “Ike” Schab Jr. of Portland touched down in Honolulu Tuesday ahead of the 83rd commemoration the attack on Pearl Harbor. He’s one of the few remaining survivors of that day, and the only one left from the USS Dobbin. His flight was met with a water cannon salute, and at the gate, sounds of the Navy’s U.S....

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941 ~ On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. By planning his attack on a Sunday, the Japanese commander Admiral Nagumo, hoped to catch the entire fleet in port. As luck would have it, the Aircraft Carriers and one of the Battleships were not in port. (The USS Enterprise was returning from Wake Island, where it had just delivered some aircraft. The USS Lexington was ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the USS Saratoga and USS...

Listen -- 1:55 Petty Officer 2nd Class Courtney Strahan / DVIDS [Caption] Vice Adm. John Wade, Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet and Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 Combined Task Force (CTF) Commander, center, and task force leadership take questions during the opening press conference for RIMPAC 2024 held at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on June 27, 2024. Twenty-nine countries and over 25,000 military personnel are coming together for the world’s largest maritime military exercise. The Rim of the Pacific exercise, better known as RIMPAC, happens every two years in Hawaiʻi. This year, it will involve 40 ships, three submarines...

Fox News host Mark Levin says President Biden's D-Day anniversary remarks 'will never go down as a great speech' on 'Life, Liberty & Levin.'

Hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in San Jose, California arrested Filippo Molinari, an Italian immigrant who sold subscriptions to L’Italia, a popular newspaper in his Italian American community. While held in custody, Molinari asked why he was being detained, only to be told that his arrest was “by order of the President.” A few days later, FBI agents forced Molinari and approximately 500 other “enemy aliens”—including more Italian nationals as well as Japanese and German immigrants from California—onto a train bound for an internment center in Missoula, Montana. Later, Molinari recalled how cold...

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi signed Bill 7, declaring the City and County of Honolulu a “Purple Heart City” to honor recipients of the Purple Heart. The bill was passed on April 17 and was signed on Friday. According to the City and County of Honolulu, those who were injured, wounded, or died in the line of duty receive the Purple Heart for their bravery and sacrifice. “I’m just really grateful to all of you, not only for your service and what you represent but for having the opportunity to become a Purple Heart City and all that...

Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 102. Conter passed away on Monday at his home in Grass Valley, California, following congestive heart failure, his daughter, Louann Daley said, adding she was beside him along with two of her brothers, James and Jeff. The Arizona lost 1,177 sailors and Marines in the 1941 attack that launched the United States into World War II. The battleship’s dead account for nearly half of those killed in the attack.

The sole living survivor from the sinking of the USS Arizona during the Pearl Harbor attack that brought the US into World War II has now died. Lou Conter, who lived in Grass Valley, was 20 years old at the time of the attack on Dec. 7, 1941. There were 2,403 Americans killed in the attack – including 1,177 of Arizona's crew. Conter was one of the only 335 officers and crewmen who survived. Over the years, Conter shared his experiences and visited Hawaii for remembrance ceremonies. "Minute it happened, we sounded general quarters and they were in there and...

David Walker from Norfolk, Va., was 19 years old when Japanese torpedoes sunk his battleship at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Walker was presumed dead following the attack on the Hawaii naval base, but his body was never recovered — that is, until recently. Officials announced on Thursday that Walker's remains were finally accounted for, thanks to scientists at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) whose mission is to recover and return missing service members from past conflicts. In a news release, the DPAA said that in 2018, military officials exhumed the unidentified remains of 25 people who were from Walker's...

Dick Higgins, the Bend resident and Pearl Harbor survivor whose public appearances and first-person recollections of that infamous day – Dec. 7, 1941 – became ever more special with every day, week and year, passed away early Tuesday at the age of 102, his grieving yet grateful family announced."Gramps went home to be with Jesus this morning. He was a humble, generous, funny and loving husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and friend. This community has celebrated and honored him and we are forever grateful for the impact he has made on all of us. At 102 years old, we have...

A Democrat-sponsored bill in Hawaii that could ban former President Trump from the ballot for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol advanced in the state legislature Monday. Hawaii state Sen. Karl Rhoads, a Democrat representing Honolulu who frequently criticizes Trump and Republicans over the Jan. 6 riot online, first introduced SB 2392 last week, which aims to "specify that election ballots issued by the chief election officer or county clerk shall exclude any candidate who is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; article XVI, section 3 of...

Dated May 25 and delivered by plane while the Yorktown was about a hundred miles from Oahu, the report that Nimitz read was sobering...One day ahead of schedule, on May 27, the Yorktown limped into Pearl Harbor. The next morning, after Nimitz had cut orders voiding the safety rule of spending a day purging her tanks of stored aviation fuel, the Yorktown eased into Drydock Number One. The caissons closed behind her, and pumps began draining out the water. With at least a foot of water still remaining in the drydock, men in waders gathered to inspect the hull. One...

The last remaining survivor of Pearl Harbor's USS Arizona has recalled the 'awful destruction' inflicted by the Japanese attack that killed 1,177 of his shipmates. Louis A. Conter, now aged 102, was just 20 years old when Japan's warplanes entered the sky above the US naval base in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. 'Aloha. There's one thing you've got to remember and that's to remember Pearl Harbor,' he said on Thursday in a taped message used to commemorate the 'Day of Infamy's' anniversary. A 1,760-pound armor-piecing bomb struck the USS Arizona leaving nearly 1,200 dead when the ship sank. The...

Good morning all from Pearl Harbor, where the 82d anniversary ceremony has just concluded. It’s a beautiful morning here, just as it was that terrible Sunday when the attack began at 7:55 a.m. A moving ceremony, with all branches of the services represented, a fly by with missing man formation, and the guided missile destroyer USS Decatur passed in review and rendered honors. Six Pearl Harbor survivors were in attendance and honored this morning. Unfortunately, my friend Lou Conter, last survivor of the USS Arizona, aged 102, was not able to attend, though his grand nephew, Ray Hower, delivered stirring...

Comprehensive research has shown not only that Washington knew in advance of the attack on Pearl Harbor, but that it deliberately withheld its foreknowledge from our commanders in Hawaii in the hope that the "surprise" attack would catapult the U.S. into World War II.On Sunday, December 7, 1941, Japan launched a sneak attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, shattering the peace of a beautiful Hawaiian morning and leaving much of the fleet broken and burning. The destruction and death that the Japanese military visited upon Pearl Harbor that day — 18 naval vessels (including eight battleships) sunk...