Oldest living survivor of Pearl Harbor attack dies at 105
Warren Upton, the oldest living survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack, has died at the age of 105.
Upton died Wednesday at a Los Gatos, California, hospital. He had pneumonia, Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, said, according to The Associated Press.
Upton was the last remaining survivor of the USS Utah. The battleship was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese bombed the naval base in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.
The attack launched the United States into World War II.
Upton died just shortly after the 83rd anniversary of the attack.
Democrats and Republicans came together earlier this month to honor the surviving veterans and those who were killed in the attack.
President Biden shared his thoughts online, honoring the Americans who perished and the service members who then went to war on the country’s behalf.
“In their memory, let us carry forward their mission of forging a better future for humankind,” Biden said.
In 2020, Upton spoke with the AP and said he was beginning to shave when he felt the first torpedo hit his battleship many decades before. A second torpedo hit the ship and it began to capsize.
Upton, who was 22 at the time, swam ashore to Ford Island and hid to avoid Japanese planes. He said he was upset to lose so many surviving crew members over the years.
After Upton’s death, just 15 survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack are alive, the AP reported.