{"id":98311,"date":"2023-12-07T00:02:07","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T06:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=98311"},"modified":"2023-12-05T02:26:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T08:26:24","slug":"98311","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=98311","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018I owe them\u2019: At 103, Pearl Harbor survivor makes trip to honor comrades lost in Dec. 7 attacks<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Pearl<\/p>\n

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Pearl Harbor survivor \u201cIke\u201d Schab is back in Honolulu.<\/p>\n

The 103-year-old was greeted with applause Sunday as he got off his flight from Portland.<\/p>\n

Schab has returned for the 82nd commemoration of the Pearl Harbor attack. It\u2019s a trip that almost didn\u2019t happen because of an illness, but Schab was determined to make it to this year\u2019s ceremony.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s been more than eight decades since the Pearl Harbor attack, Dec. 7 still brings back his memories of being there. \u201dAnd they\u2019re not necessarily pleasant,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I definitely don\u2019t want to lose that memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schab was a Navy musician stationed aboard the USS Dobbin that was anchored off Ford Island.<\/p>\n

During the bombing of Battleship Row, he helped load his ship\u2019s anti-aircraft guns.
\nAsked what was racing through his mind, he says, \u201cDisbelief. I couldn\u2019t believe it was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even at his advanced age, Schab looks forward to attending the annual Pearl Harbor commemoration ceremony to pay his respects alongside other December 7 survivors.<\/p>\n

\u201dThere\u2019s a certain feeling of comfort and at the same time obligation. That\u2019s a good word,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201dI owe them. Just like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But this year\u2019s trip almost didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

\u201dHe got really sick earlier this year, almost left us, really scary,\u201d said daughter Kimberlee Heinrichs.<\/p>\n

\u201dI\u2019m talking to him saying, \u2018Hey, it\u2019s OK if it\u2019s, you know.\u2019 And he goes, and I quote, \u2018Hell no! I\u2019m going to Hawaii,\u2019\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n

For a long time, Schab spoke very little about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n

His family says that gradually changed the older he got.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I think I owe to the guys that were there that aren\u2019t there anymore,\u201d he said. \u201dDon\u2019t forget it. Don\u2019t forget it. Just keep it alive. It\u2019s like a living thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schab is the last survivor from Navy Band 13 and among the ranks of a shrinking number of servicemembers who lived through one of the darkest days in America\u2019s history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018I owe them\u2019: At 103, Pearl Harbor survivor makes trip to honor comrades lost in Dec. 7 attacks HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Pearl Harbor survivor \u201cIke\u201d Schab is back in Honolulu. The 103-year-old was greeted with applause Sunday as he got off his flight from Portland. Schab has returned for the 82nd commemoration of the Pearl … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heroism","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98312,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98311\/revisions\/98312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}