Veteran Remembers Pearl Harbor Attack
Ira Schab says just looking at a map of Pearl Harbor brings backs memories of that fateful attack 59 years ago today.
The 80-year-old Ventura resident recalls being aboard the destroyer Dobbin when the Japanese military rained down bombs on U.S. military installations off Honolulu on Dec. 7, 1941.
The bombing killed 40 close friends, Schab said, and left the harbor covered with debris and a layer of oil 2 inches thick.
A ceremony commemorating the attack will be held at noon today at the Veterans Memorial in front of the County Government Center on Victoria Avenue.
Schab won’t be able to attend the event, but he said that when he thinks of the 2,400 who perished near Honolulu, he is reminded of the need for America’s military to always be on alert.
“We tend to become very lethargic and we tell ourselves that it can’t happen to us,” he said. “But, of course, it can and it did.”
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