Warren Upton, the oldest dwelling survivor of the 1941 Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor and the final remaining survivor of the USS Utah, has died. He was 105.
Upton died on Wednesday at a hospital in Los Gatos, California, after struggling a bout of pneumonia, stated Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.
The Utah, a battleship, was moored at Pearl Harbor when Japanese planes started bombing the Hawaii naval base within the early hours of seven December 1941, in an assault that propelled the US into the second world warfare.
Upton informed the Related Press in 2020 that he had been on the point of shave when he felt the primary torpedo hit the Utah. He recalled that nobody on board knew what made the ship shake. Then, the second torpedo hit and the ship started to record and capsize.
The then 22-year-old swam ashore to Ford Island, the place he jumped in a trench to keep away from Japanese planes strafing the realm. He stayed for about half-hour till a truck got here and took him to security.
Upton stated he didn’t thoughts speaking about what occurred in the course of the assault. As an alternative, what upset him was that he saved shedding shipmates over time. By 2020, there have been solely three crew members of the Utah nonetheless alive, together with himself.
There have been an estimated 87,000 navy personnel on Oahu on the day of the assault, in accordance with navy historian J Michael Wenger. After Upton’s demise, there are solely 15 nonetheless alive.
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