Ira 'Ike' Schab, one of the last Pearl Harbor survivors, dies at 105

Ira “Ike” Schab, a World War II Navy veteran and one of the last Pearl Harbor survivors, died Saturday at his Beaverton, Oregon home, surrounded by his daughter Kimberlee Heinrichs and her husband. He was 105. With Schab's death, the number of Pearl Harbor survivors remaining has dwindled to about a dozen, from the more than 2,400 service members killed on Dec. 7, 1941 and the thousands who survived the day.

Schab was 21 at the time of the attack. Born July 4, 1920, in Chicago, he joined the Navy at 18 to follow his father’s footsteps. On what began as a peaceful Sunday, the attack on Pearl Harbor unfolded as he was aboard the USS Dobbin, where he played the tuba in the ship’s band. After showering and donning a clean uniform, he heard a call for fire rescue. He went topside, witnessed the USS Utah capsizing, and watched Japanese planes rove overhead. He and a daisy chain of sailors fed shells to an anti-aircraft gun while the ship’s crew endured the assault. Three Dobbin sailors were killed, one in action and two later from fragment wounds to a bomb that struck the stern. Schab spent most of the war in the Pacific, traveling to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), the Mariana Islands, and Okinawa, Japan.

Following the war, Schab studied aerospace engineering and helped propel the Apollo spaceflight program as an electrical engineer with General Dynamics, contributing to the effort that landed astronauts on the moon. His son also joined the Navy and rose to the rank of commander before retiring. In interviews in recent years, Schab reflected on Pearl Harbor and the importance of remembering those who served, especially as the number of survivors dwindled.

Schab maintained a yearly pilgrimage to Hawaii for the National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day observance on Oahu, traveling from Beaverton to the military base at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. He often spoke of honoring the men who did not make it and of the need to remember those who served there. For last year’s commemoration, he spent weeks building up the strength to stand and salute; this year, he did not feel well enough to attend, and he died less than three weeks later.

Schab was born on Independence Day and was the eldest of three brothers. His service extended from the Dobbin’s band to the broader Pacific theater, and after the war he helped push humanity toward the moon. His family noted that his son continued a naval tradition, underscoring a legacy of service across generations.

As the pool of Pearl Harbor survivors continues to shrink—estimated at about a dozen—Schab’s death marks another quiet fade of living memory from the war’s earliest days. The attack killed just over 2,400 service members and changed the course of world history, accelerating the United States’ entry into World War II.

Images from the era and from Pearl Harbor ceremonies accompany remembrances. The memory of Schab’s service and the broader history of Pearl Harbor continue to be reflected in annual ceremonies and in the stories of survivors who lived through the day that drew the United States into World War II.

A portrait of a generation, Schab’s life bridged the 1940s naval battles and the Space Age that followed. His example, family members say, is a reminder of the human dimensions of a war that remains a defining chapter of 20th-century history. As veterans pass, communities and historians emphasize preserving the lessons of courage, resilience and duty that Schab embodied across his long life.