Ira 'Ike' Schab, WWII vet and one of last remaining Pearl Harbor survivors, dies at 105
Ira "Ike" Schab (Photo courtesy of the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service DVIDS)
Ira "Ike" Schab, one of only a few Pearl Harbor survivors from the bombing of Pearl Harbor of 1941, has died. He was 105.
The World War II Navy veteran died at his home on Dec. 20, his daughter Kimberlee Heinrichs told the Associated Press.
RELATED: Pearl Harbor survivor Bob Fernandez dies at 100
After Schab’s passing, there are only roughly a dozen survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack, which killed more than 2,400 troops and pushed the United States into the war.
Who was Ira "Ike" Schab?
The backstory: Ira "Ike" Schab was born on July 4, 1920, in Chicago, and he was the eldest of three brothers, and he went on to join the Navy at 18 years old.
The Associated Press reported that Schab was a sailor at 21 years old and served as a tuba player in the USS Dobbin’s band at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941.
RELATED: Pearl Harbor’s 84th anniversary honors fallen, reflects on 80 years since WWII’s end
He witnessed a ship, the USS Utah, capsizing and spotted Japanese planes flying. Schab grabbed boxes of ammunition and joined a group of sailors furnishing shells to an anti-aircraft gun above. Navy records show that Schab’s ship lost three sailors.
Following the war, Schab studied aerospace engineering and worked on the Apollo spaceflight program as an electrical engineer for General Dynamics and helped send astronauts to the moon. Additionally, Schab's son later joined the Navy and is a retired commander.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Associated Press and the Naval History and Heritage Command records. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.