2025’s “Top” Ten Losses: Pearl Harbor Survivors (#2)

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You may accuse me of cheating with this one, but tough. We started the year 2025 with only fourteen survivors of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor still living. We ended the year with eleven. Men who were just doing their job and never asked to be heroes, yet heroes they became. Here’s a salute to the people we lost last year. #2: Pearl Harbor Survivors: Vaughn Drake, Jessie Mahaffee, and Ira “Ike” Schab The date which will live in infamy. Now it will have to live in memory. Last year (2025) marked the first time that no Pearl Harbor survivors were able to attend ceremonies at the USS Arizona Memorial. Not only did no survivors attend, but three of the men who were stationed there on December 7, 1941 passed away. Vaughn Drake was the oldest survivor. A Kentucky boy, he joined the Army, serving at Pearl Harbor in the Army Corps of Engineers. He was assigned to Kaneohe Naval Air Station to build barracks and reported he was in the chow line when the attack happened. Initially most of the people at breakfast thought it was maneuvers by the Army Air Corps. Drake was uninjured (Kaneohe wasn’t a primary target). Jessie Mahaffey was the final survivor from the USS Oklahoma, one of the other ships that sank into the harbor during the attack. Mahaffey was a boatswain’s mate who said he was helping clean the deck of the Oklahoma for an upcoming inspection when the attack happened. He said he simply slid into the water as the ship sank. Poor guy, he was on two OTHER ships that were torpedoed during the war (the Northampton and the Frederick Funston). He was also aboard a ship that was providing support to the Marines on Iwo Jima. Ike Schab was serving as a musician aboard the destroyer USS Dobbin when the attack happened. The destroyers were moored in a separate area from the battleships and were secondary targets, but she sustained minimal damage and went into immediate action to rescue people from the water then go after the attackers. Schab went from tuba player to ammo runner in a matter of minutes. Salute to these three men. Fair winds and following seas. Pearl Harbor Survivors: Vaughn Drake Born Vaughn Paris Drake, Jr., November 6, 1918, Winchester, Kentucky Died April 7, 2025, Lexington, Kentucky (natural causes) (age 106) Jessie Mahaffey Born Jessie Alton Mahaffey, November 23, 1922, Florien, Louisiana Died March 1, 2025, Alexandria, Louisiana (natural causes) (age 102) Ira “Ike” Schab Born Ira John Schab, Jr., July 4, 1920, Chicago, Illinois Died December 20, 2025, Beaverton, Oregon (natural causes) (age 105) Honolulu’s KHON reporting on the 84th anniversary ceremonies, the first without a Pearl Harbor survivor in attendance: