Ira 'Ike' Schab, Pearl Harbor survivor, dies at 105

Ira 'Ike' Schab, a Navy veteran and one of the last surviving witnesses of the December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, died Saturday at age 105. He passed away at his Beaverton, Oregon, home, with his daughter Kimberlee Heinrichs and her husband at his side.

Schab's death leaves about a dozen Pearl Harbor survivors from the 2,400-plus lives lost in the surprise attack. He was 21 at the time and served as a sailor aboard the destroyer USS Dobbin, where he played the tuba in the ship's band. When the raid began, Schab rushed topside, saw the USS Utah capsizing, and joined a daisy-chain of sailors feeding shells to an anti-aircraft gun. Navy records show three Dobbin sailors died in the action. He spent most of the war in the Pacific, including service in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), the Mariana Islands and Okinawa.

After the war, Schab studied aerospace engineering and joined the General Dynamics team working on the Apollo spaceflight program, contributing as an electrical engineer to lunar missions. His son later joined the Navy and rose to the rank of commander. He traveled from Beaverton to Hawaii each year for the Pearl Harbor remembrance.

In 2022, Schab spoke at a Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony, urging people to remember and honor those who served at Pearl Harbor and to recognize those who remain. He emphasized the importance of honoring the service of those who did not survive and those who did.

In 2023, as the number of survivors continued to dwindle, Schab described his annual commemoration trips as a way to pay tribute to his fallen comrades and to the others who carried the memory of that day. This year, he did not feel well enough to attend the ceremony in Hawaii, and less than three weeks later he passed away.

Schab was born July 4, 1920, in Chicago, the eldest of three brothers. He joined the Navy at 18, following in the footsteps of his father, and spoke in interviews about his service during the early days of the war. On what began as a peaceful Sunday, December 7, 1941, Schab, who played the tuba in the USS Dobbin's band, was expecting a visit from his brother, a fellow service member assigned to a nearby naval radio station. He has recalled that he had just showered and donned a clean uniform when a call went out for fire rescue. He went topside and saw another ship, the USS Utah, capsizing, as Japanese planes roared overhead. He and fellow sailors scurried to feed ammunition into an anti-aircraft gun as their ship endured losses of crew members who were killed or wounded.

Schab spent much of the war in the Pacific, roaming between the New Hebrides, the Mariana Islands and Okinawa. After the war he pursued aerospace engineering and contributed to the Apollo program, helping General Dynamics move astronauts toward the moon. His son followed him into the Navy and became a commander.

Daughter Kimberlee Heinrichs confirmed the death to The Associated Press, noting that Schab's passing reduces a still-shrinking circle of those who lived through the attack that changed the course of history. With his death, the ranks of Pearl Harbor survivors are estimated to number about a dozen.

Schab's life bridged the World War II era and the space-age era that followed, reflecting the arc of a generation that saw the United States transform from a wartime society into a spacefaring nation. He remained a steadfast advocate for honoring veterans and keeping alive the memory of those who served, both living and deceased, through annual ceremonies in Hawaii and elsewhere.