A veteran who is believed to be Pearl Harbor survivor in the world in the world has died at age 106.
Vaughn P. Drake Jr. de Kentucky was 23 years old at the time of Japanese attack against the US Pacific base. UU. In Hawaii, according to a press release.
I was working as an army engineer at the Kaneohe Naval Air Station in Oahu on the day of the shocking attack on December 7, 1941, which precipitated the entrance of the United States into World War II.
“We were preparing for breakfast, and we heard all these planes flying and making a lot of noise,” Drake told the Lexington Herald leader in 2016.
“We simply believe that it was the air corps of the army that carried out maneuvers for practice, as they did a lot. We did not pay much attention.
“We finally went to go to the Chow line for breakfast, and we noticed that these airplanes flew on the Naval Air Station, diving and everything. And we think:” Wow, they are really doing a good show. “Just although we saw the red spots on the wing, which was the Japanese symbol, we could still believe it,” he continued.
Drake also witnessed the battle of Saipan in the Mariana Islands, a turning point for the United States in the conflict.
He recalled several recommendations for his service, including the World War II Victory Medal and a special medal of Congress dedicated to Pearl Harbor veterans.
After the war, Drake returned to his beloved Kentucky, where he worked as an engineer in the private sector.
His wife survives for 65 years, Lina Wilson Drake, his son, Samuel Drake, and two grandchildren along with three great -grandchildren.
“For us, he was more than a hero,” Samuel said in a statement informed by Wkyt. “He was a devout husband, a father and a loving grandfather and a humble man who lived with integrity every day.”
Drake will have a complete military burial in the Winchester cemetery on Thursday.
His death arrives a year after Lou Contr, the last known survivor of the attack on USS Arizona, a battleship sunk by the Japanese duration, the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Conr, who was only 20 years old at the time of the attack, died in April last year at the age of 102.
Only 15 survivors of the attack, who killed 2,403 Americans, are still alive today.
Drake never returned to Oahu or Pearl Harbor, and only occasionally shared his remarkable history in public.
“I feel part of the story,” Drake told the Herald leader in 2016. “I host it the most important in my life.”
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