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of the 1941 Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor and the final remaining survivor of the USS Utah, has died at 105 years outdated.
Upton died Wednesday at a hospital in Los Gatos, Calif. after struggling a bout of pneumonia, mentioned 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 Dec. 7, 1941, in an assault that propelled the US into World Conflict II.
Upton advised The Related Press in 2020 that he had been on the brink 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 checklist 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 world.
He stayed for about half-hour till a truck got here and took him to security.
Upton mentioned he didn’t thoughts speaking about what occurred throughout the assault. As an alternative, what upset him was that he saved dropping shipmates over time.
By 2020, solely three crew members of the Utah have been 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 loss of life, there are solely 15 nonetheless alive.
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