Kentucky Native, Last Known Pearl Harbor Survivor, Passes at 106

According to his relatives, Vaughn P. Drake Jr., the oldest known surviving Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, passed away on April 7 at the age of 106. Just days before World War I ended, Drake passed away quietly at his house in Winchester, Kentucky, the town where he was born on November 6, 1918.

On December 7, 1941, Drake, a 23-year-old Army engineer assigned to Oahu, was there when Japan began its surprise attack on American soldiers in Hawaii. He worked at the Kaneohe Naval Air Station, helping run a temporary power plant for building workers. His obituary claims that the station became a primary target during the onslaught.

Drake remembered the strange beginning to that legendary Sunday morning in a 2016 interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader. "Japan cannot possibly send aircraft across Pearl Harbor! We never imagined that could have happened. He was strolling to breakfast when he saw aircraft flying with Imperial Japanese military red circle insignia overhead. At first thinking it was a drill, conflict soon dawned on me.

Rushing to Kaneohe, already under fire, Drake and fellow troops. One Japanese plane fell from flight and landed on the air base. Later, Drake recalled going to the wreckage and gathering relics as keepsakes, an event he would live with for decades.

Living a century of American history, he stayed a living link to the "date which will live in infamy." The country bids one of the last eyewitnesses to that crucial event in World War II farewell with his death.

Drake is remembered honorably for his service as his family survives him.