Oldest Survivor Of Pearl Harbor Attack Dies At 106

With every passing year, the ranks of those justifiably deemed members of the Greatest Generation continue to dwindle.

This month, the nation lost a veteran who was present for one of America’s darkest days.

As NBC News reports, Vaughn Drake Jr., the oldest known survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died on April 7 at the age of 106.

At the time of the attack, Drake was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers, according to Stars & Stripes.

He recounted his remarkable experience in a 2016 interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Working on-site at a temporary power plant meant to assist in the construction of new barracks at Kaneohe Naval Air Station, which was on the opposite side of the island from Pearl Harbor, Drake saw things on that fateful day in December that he would never forget.

“We were getting ready to go to breakfast, and we heard all these planes flying over and making a lot of noise,” he remembered.

“We just figured it was the Army Air Corps carrying out maneuvers for practice, like they did a lot.

“We didn’t pay much attention to it.”

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