Ira 'Ike' Schab had just showered, changed into a clean sailor uniform and closed his locker aboard the USS Dobbin when he heard a call from a fire rescue party. He surfaced to see the USS Utah capsizing and Japanese planes in the air. He snuck below deck to grab crates of ammunition and joined a chain of sailors feeding shells into an anti-aircraft gun overhead.
He remembers that when he was 21 years old he weighed only 63.5 kilograms, but somehow he found the strength to lift boxes that weighed almost twice as much. “We were quite surprised. Scared and scared to death,” said Schab, now 103 years old. "We didn't know what to expect and we knew that if something happened to us, that would be it."
Eighty-two years later, Schab returned to Pearl Harbor on Thursday on the anniversary of the attack to remember the more than 2,300 service members killed. He was one of five survivors of a ceremony commemorating the assault that propelled the United States into World War II. Six of the increasingly frail men were expected, but one was not feeling well, organizers said.
The group of aging Pearl Harbor survivors has been shrinking rapidly. Now only one member of the USS Arizona crew remains alive, 102-year-old Lou Conter of California. Schab, the oldest of those who attended this year's ceremony, arrived in a wheelchair with his son, his daughter and other family members.
A crowd of a few thousand guests and members of the public joined them for a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m. m., the same moment bombs began to fall decades ago. Four F-22 planes flew over the site and broke the silence, one of them separated from the rest in a “missing man formation” that honored the fallen.
Thursday's ceremony was held in a field across the harbor from the USS Arizona Memorial, a white structure that sits atop the rusting hull of the battleship, which exploded in a fireball and sank shortly after being hit. More than 1,100 Arizona sailors and Marines died and more than 900 are buried inside.
David Kilton, a National Park Service guide for Pearl Harbor, noted that for many years survivors frequently volunteered to share their experiences with visitors to the historic site. That is not possible anymore. "We could be the best storytellers in the world and we really can't compare ourselves to those who lived it sharing their stories firsthand," Kilton said. "But now that we are losing that generation and won't have it for much longer, the opportunity shifts to reflect even more on the sacrifices that were made, the stories that were shared."
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs does not maintain statistics on how many Pearl Harbor survivors are still alive. But department data shows that of the 16 million who served in World War II, only about 120,000 were alive in October and an estimated 131 die each day. There were about 87,000 military personnel on Oahu at the time of the attack, according to a rough estimate compiled by military historian J. Michael Wenger.
Schab never talked much about Pearl Harbor until about a decade ago. Since then, he has been sharing his story with his family, student groups, and history buffs. And since then he has returned to Pearl Harbor several times. The reason? "To pay tribute to the guys who didn't make it," he said. Harry Chandler, 102, recalled raising the flag at a mobile hospital in Aiea Heights, in the hills above Pearl Harbor, in 1941. He was at a Navy hospital. He was a third class doctor at the time. Sitting in his front-row seat on the ceremony grounds overlooking the harbor, Chandler said memories of the USS Arizona explosion still come back to him today.
“I saw these planes coming and I thought they were planes coming from the United States until I saw the bombs fall,” Chandler said. They took cover and then traveled by truck to Pearl Harbor, where the wounded were treated. He remembers sailors trapped on the capsized USS Oklahoma hitting the ship's hull to be rescued and caring for those who eventually got out after crews tore holes in the ship.
“I look out and I can still see what's going on. I can still see what was happening,” said Chandler, who today lives in Tequesta, Florida. When asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, he said, “Be prepared.” “We should have known that was going to happen. Intelligence has to be greater,” he said.
Schab's ship, the Dobbin, lost three sailors, according to Navy records. One was killed in action and two later died from injuries sustained when fragments of a bomb hit the stern of the ship. They had all been manning an anti-aircraft gun.
Captain Daniel Hower, 29-year-old great-nephew of Conter, the last survivor of the USS Arizona, gave the keynote address, reading from a podium as he looked at the survivors seated in the front row, with Pearl Harbor sitting motionless behind them. Under a clear blue sky and scattered white clouds. Hower recognized the collective humility of his military and his service.
“Every time my Uncle Lou or any other World War II veteran is recognized or thanked for their service, they humbly respond, 'We just did what we had to do,'” Hower said. Hower then praised his sacrifice, determination, heroism and courage. “The legacy that all of you built remains incomparable and is a lesson that continues to be taught,” Hower said.
That Sunday morning had begun quietly for Schab. He was expecting a visit from his brother, who was also in the Navy and assigned to a naval radio station in Wahiawa, north of Pearl Harbor. The two never met that day. Schab spent most of World War II in the Pacific with the Navy, going to the New Hebrides, now known as Vanuatu, and then to the Mariana Islands and Okinawa.
After the war, he worked on the Apollo program that sent astronauts to the Moon as an electrical engineer at General Dynamics. Schab has slowed down in recent years. But he still meets weekly for drinks over Zoom with younger members of his fraternity, Delta Sigma Phi. He drinks cranberry and raspberry juice. At his age, he is grateful to be able to return to Pearl Harbor with his family and caregivers.
The family has a GoFundMe account to help them raise money for the pilgrimage. “I'm just grateful to still be here,” Schab said. “That's really what it feels like. Grateful".
