LEXINGTON, Ky. (WDKY) — Vaughn P. Drake Jr., who was on Oahu during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor has died, according to an obituary.
At 106, Drake was believed to be the oldest known U.S. survivor of the Battle of Pearl Harbor, his obituary read. Drake died on April 7.
He was born on Nov. 6, 1918, in Winchester, Kentucky. He studied at the University of Kentucky College of Engineering before serving in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II, where he saw combat at the battles of Pearl Harbor and Saipan in the Pacific Theater.
Drake previously told the Lexington Herald Leader that was tasked with building barracks on Oahu’s eastern edge. The morning of the attack on Pearl Harbor, he said he was going to breakfast when the Japanese planes began flying over.
Outside of his military service, Drake served his community for over 50 years in the engineering trade. In the 1940s and 1950s, his work was critical in designing and placing underground telephone conduits in Lexington, Morehead, and Ashland. He retired in 1981.
His obituary said that Drake was a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels and also received the Mayor’s Spirit of Lexington Award.
Drake was reportedly a life member of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association and a life member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association. He is survived by a son, two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements for Drake will take place at Milward Funeral Directors on April 17.
Only about a dozen survivors of the attack are alive today, the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors previously reported.
Last spring, Lou Conter, the last living survivor of the USS Arizona battleship that exploded and sank during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, died. He was 102. Weeks earlier, Richard C. “Dick” Higgins, a radioman assigned to a patrol squadron of seaplanes based at the Hawaii naval base, died at 102.
In December, Warren Upton, labeled as the oldest living survivor from Pearl Harbor and the last remaining survivor of the USS Utah, died at 105. Days later, Harry Chandler, a Navy medic who helped tend to injured soldiers after the attack, died at a Florida senior living center.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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