RIP, Vaughn P. Drake Jr | Political News

Vaughn Paris Drake Jr, America’s oldest residing veteran of the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor, has handed away. He was 106. He is survived by his spouse, Lina Wilson Drake, his son Samuel Drake, two grandsons, and three great-grandchildren.

Vaughn P. Drake Jr. from Kentucky was 23 years outdated on the time of the Japanese assault on the US Pacific naval base in Hawaii, in keeping with a press release.

He was working as an Army engineer at Kaneohe Naval Air Station on Oahu on the day of the surprising assault on December 7, 1941, which precipitated America’s entry into World War II.

“We were getting ready to go to breakfast, and we heard all these planes flying over and making a lot of noise,” Drake informed the Lexington Herald Leader in 2016.

“We just figured it was the Army Air Corps carrying out maneuvers for practice, like they did a lot. We didn’t pay much attention to it.

Other Pearl Harbor survivors (including a great-uncle of mine) had similar tales of that Date Which Will Live in Infamy. The Japanese were hoping to achieve surprise, and they certainly did.

“Finally we left to go to the chow line to get our breakfast, and we noticed these planes flying over the naval air station, diving and everything. And we thought, ‘Boy, they’re really putting on a good show.’ Even though we saw the red spots on the wing — which was the Japanese symbol — we still couldn’t believe it,” he went on.

Mr. Drake additionally served within the Marianas marketing campaign, on the invasion of Saipan, and, after the Japanese give up, returned to his home in Lexington, Kentucky.

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Where would our nation be with out males like this? When the assault got here, they carried out. It was a lethal harmful business. So many of these males noticed associates maimed and killed. Even the survivors bore scars, some within, some with out. But they recovered from the assault and went on to flood in growing numbers throughout the Pacific, and so they received. It’s arduous to think about what could have occurred in the event that they hadn’t, however they did. Vaughn P. Drake Jr., from what we learn of his life, made no great deal of his service. Many of his friends did likewise. There was a job to do, they did it, after which they went home and received their lives back. They are heroes nonetheless, and now there’s one fewer hero in our world.

And now, at this time, issues within the Pacific are tensing up again. Now, the first geopolitical rival in that half of the world is a nation we supported in World War 2 – China – whereas Japan has develop into one of the United States’ best allies within the Pacific. History is replete with such ironies.

Mr. Drake will probably be laid to relaxation in Winchester Cemetary in Winchester, Kentucky, with full navy honors, as he deserves. There at the moment are solely 15 confirmed survivors of the December seventh, 1941 assault.

To Vaughn P. Drake Jr.’s household, I can solely say this: All of America is proud of Mr. Drake; we, as a nation, are richer for the existence of males corresponding to he. Indeed, with out males like him, we’d very effectively not have a nation in any respect.

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