Ira ‘Ike’ Schab, one of last remaining Pearl Harbor survivors, dies aged 105

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A second world war veteran who was among the last survivors of the 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor died on Saturday.

Ira “Ike” Schab, who served in the US navy at the time of the bombing, was 105, according to a statement from the USS Arizona Memorial, which pays tribute to military members who were killed at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

The memorial’s statement said Schab was at his home in Oregon when he “passed peacefully while listening to swing music, with his family by his side”. His death leaves only about a dozen survivors of a surprise attack that killed more than 2,400 US troops and preceded the country’s entry into the second world war.

In 2024, he attended the 83rd commemoration of the attack. But health issues prevented him from attending the 84th commemoration more recently, and he instead watched the ceremony on a live stream.

Schab, a native of Chicago, was a 21-year-old navy musician aboard the USS Dobbin when the Japanese carried out their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. He spent that morning helping to provide ammunition to anti-aircraft gunners, the memorial’s statement said.

“We were pretty startled – startled and scared to death,” Schab recounted in 2023 of a day that he initially planned to spend with his brother, who served a nearby naval radio station. “We didn’t know what to expect. And we knew that if anything happened to us, that would be it.”

Navy records show that the Pearl Harbor attack killed three sailors who were manning an anti-aircraft gun on Schab’s ship. One was killed in action, and two died later of fragment wounds from a bomb that struck the Dobbin’s stern.

Schab spent the bulk of the ensuing war with the navy in the Pacific, including New Hebrides, known today as Vanuatu; the Mariana Islands; and Okinawa, Japan.

He became an electrical engineer after the war, working on the Apollo spaceflight program that sent US astronauts to the moon. His son later joined the navy, retiring as a commander.

It was important for Schab to travel from his home in Oregon to the site of the attack for the observances held there annually. “To pay honor to the guys that didn’t make it,” he said in 2023.

In 2022, he spoke at a Pearl Harbor observance and implored those in attendance to honor everyone who had served through the attack.

“They did a hell of a job,” he said.