Ira “Ike” Schab, a 105-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor, died at his Beaverton, Oregon home early Saturday.
A Life Spanning a Century
Schab was born on Independence Day in 1920 in Chicago, the eldest of three brothers. He joined the Navy at 18, following his father’s footsteps. After the war, he studied aerospace engineering and worked on the Apollo spaceflight program as an electrical engineer for General Dynamics, helping send astronauts to the moon. His son also joined the Navy and is a retired commander.
The Day That Changed Everything
On what began as a peaceful Sunday, Dec. 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 had just showered and donned a clean uniform when he heard a call for fire rescue.
He went topside and saw another ship, the USS Utah, capsizing. Japanese planes roared through the air. “We were pretty startled. Startled and scared to death,” Schab recalled in 2023. “We didn’t know what to expect, and we knew that if anything happened to us, that would be it.”
Schab scurried back below deck to grab boxes of ammunition and joined a daisy chain of sailors feeding shells to an anti-aircraft gun above. His ship lost three sailors, according to Navy records. One was killed in action, and two died later of fragment wounds from a bomb that struck the stern. All had been manning an anti-aircraft gun.
From the Pacific to the Moon
Schab spent most of the war with the Navy in the Pacific, going to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), then the Mariana Islands and Okinawa, Japan. After the war he pursued aerospace engineering, eventually contributing to the Apollo program as an electrical engineer for General Dynamics.
Honoring the Fallen
In recent years, aware that the corps of survivors was dwindling, Schab made a point of traveling from his home in Beaverton, Oregon, to the annual observance at the Hawaii military base. “To pay honor to the guys that didn’t make it,” he said in 2023.
For last year’s commemoration, Schab spent weeks building up the strength to be able to stand and salute. But this year he did not feel well enough to attend, and less than three weeks later, he passed away.
Speaking at a 2022 ceremony, Schab asked people to honor those who served at Pearl Harbor. “Remember what they’re here for. Remember and honor those that are left. They did a hell of a job,” he said. “Those who are still here, dead or alive.”
Key Takeaways
- Ira “Ike” Schab, a 105-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor, died at home in Beaverton, Oregon.
- He served aboard the USS Dobbin during the attack and later worked on the Apollo program.
- Schab regularly attended the Hawaii commemoration to honor fellow survivors and those who fell.
The passing of Ira Schab marks the loss of one of the last living witnesses to the 1941 bombing that propelled the United States into World War II.
