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Old 03-02-2021, 11:30 AM
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Boats Boats is offline
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Arrow One of Last Army Witnesses to Pearl Harbor Attack Dies in Texas

One of Last Army Witnesses to Pearl Harbor Attack Dies in Texas
By: NewsMax Independent American - 03-02-21
Re: https://www.newsmax.com/us/pearl-har...02/id/1012156/

Photo link: https://www.newsmax.com/CMSPages/Get...axsidesize=600
A trumpeter with a military honor guard pauses at the World War II Memorial during a wreath-laying ceremony to mark National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day on December 7, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Virgil Lee Ward, an Army veteran who witnessed the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died at his Texas home, Stars and Stripes reported.

The 102-year-old vet passed away at his home in Grand Prairie on Sunday.

“He passed away here in his bed,” Merry Lux Ward, his wife, told the San Antonio Express-News.

Ward made a career of the Army, seeing combat during the Korean War and a stint in Vietnam before retiring as a major in 1965, Stars and Stripes reported.

He was among a dwindling number of living veterans who witnessed the 1941 attack, which took the lives of 2,335 sailors, Marines, and soldiers and destroyed or damaged ships moored in Pearl Harbor, Stars and Stripes noted.

On the morning of the attack, Ward had been set to deliver copies of the Honolulu Advertiser, a side job he held down for some extra cash, according to an Express-News. But the stack of papers he was to deliver arrived late. A member of the Signal Corps, Ward’s job was working the Army’s network of telephones.

Just before 8 a.m., while still waiting for the newspapers, Ward saw the first Japanese fighters in the sky.

“They were flying in a formation when they first came in, and then they split up, of course, and they were diving in the air where I was at, and I was pretty close,” he told Express-News in 2018.

Ward quickly made his way to his duty station, where he fielded a flurry of calls from soldiers and commanders as they tried to make sense of the attack and mount a defense. “I couldn't tell them much more than they were being attacked,” he told the Express-News.

Ward joined the Army in 1935 at age 15 — under the mistaken belief that he was 17, which his father had led him to believe, the Express-News reported.
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Personal comment:
Rest In Peace Mr. Ward with your Friends & Brother's at Pearl Harbor.
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Boats

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Also to be noted:

USS Arizona Crew Member, Pearl Harbor Survivor Dies Age 97
By: Newsmax News - 03-02-21
Re: https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pe.../16/id/954349/

Photo link: https://www.newsmax.com/CMSPages/Get...axsidesize=600
In this 2016 file photo, Donald Stratton, center, a USS Arizona survivor, acknowledges a friend at Kilo Pier next to the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu. Stratton passed away in his sleep at his Colorado Springs home Saturday, Feb. 16, 2020 with his family in attendance. (Eugene Tanner/AP)

One of the remaining USS Arizona crew members who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor has died.

Donald Stratton passed away at his Colorado Springs home in his sleep Saturday with his family in attendance.

The 97-year-old veteran had been in poor health since contracting pneumonia in October.

"He was a very humble, very quiet hero," said his son, Randy Stratton. “He didn't want or seek the attention he received.”

Stratton was one of the survivors of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese aerial attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii. More than 1,100 crew members died on the battleship.

Nearly 2,500 Americans died as a result of the Pearl Harbor attack that prompted America's entry into World War II.

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USS Arizona Crew Member, Pearl Harbor Survivor Dies Age 97
USS Arizona Crew Member, Pearl Harbor Survivor Dies Age 97
In this 2016 file photo, Donald Stratton, center, a USS Arizona survivor, acknowledges a friend at Kilo Pier next to the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu. Stratton passed away in his sleep at his Colorado Springs home Saturday, Feb. 16, 2020 with his family in attendance. (Eugene Tanner/AP)

Sunday, 16 February 2020 09:27 PM



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One of the remaining USS Arizona crew members who survived the attack on Pearl Harbor has died.

Donald Stratton passed away at his Colorado Springs home in his sleep Saturday with his family in attendance.

The 97-year-old veteran had been in poor health since contracting pneumonia in October.

"He was a very humble, very quiet hero," said his son, Randy Stratton. “He didn't want or seek the attention he received.”

Stratton was one of the survivors of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese aerial attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii. More than 1,100 crew members died on the battleship.

Nearly 2,500 Americans died as a result of the Pearl Harbor attack that prompted America's entry into World War II.


“One of Donald's final wishes was that people remember Pearl Harbor and the men aboard the USS Arizona. Share their story and never forget those who gave all for our great country,” a post on Stratton's Facebook page said.

Following Stratton's death, Lou Conter and Ken Potts remain the last living members of the Arizona's crew.

Stratton attended many of the annual Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremonies and was the author of the bestselling book, “All the Gallant Men."

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Personal note:
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Donald may you now Rest In Peace and thank your for service to our Country.
(When you get where you're going tell the boy' s they are not forgotten as well.)
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Boats
__________________
Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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