--- title: "Oldest Pearl Harbor survivor dies at 106" description: "Vaughn Drake Jr. was a 23-year-old Army engineer working in Oahu when Japanese forces attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor." date: "2025-04-12" modified: "2025-04-12" authors: - name: "Nicholas Slayton" job_title: "Contributing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/nicholas-slayton/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/history/pearl-harbor-vaughn-drake-dies/" categories: - "History" - "Past Conflicts" - "World War II" tags: - "adsafety" --- # Oldest Pearl Harbor survivor dies at 106 ![A black and white headshot of a man in an Army uniform smiling.]() *Vaughn Drake Jr. during his time in the U.S. Army. Photo courtesy Milward Funeral Home/the Drake family.* The oldest known survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor died this week. Vaughn P. Drake, Jr. was 106. Drake passed away on April 7, in his home in Kentucky. He was born Nov. 6, 1918 in Winchester, KY, only days before the end of World War I. He would be present at the start of the U.S. entry into World War II. 84 years ago, he was an Army engineer, working in Oahu. He and other engineers were working at a temporary power plant, set up to help with construction at Kaneohe Naval Air Station, according to details shared in his [obituary](). In a 2016 interview with a local newspaper, Drake said that initially he and his fellow soldiers didn’t believe they were under attack. He was on his way to breakfast when he started seeing planes fly by. Even when he saw red dots on their tails — the emblem of the Imperial Japanese military — the soldiers thought it must have been the Army Air Corps carrying out maneuvers. “There’s no way Japan could get planes over Pearl Harbor! We didn’t think it could possibly happen,” he [told]() the Lexington Herald-Leader in a 2016 interview. The soldiers quickly learned it was a real attack and rushed to Kaneohe Naval Air Station, which was under attack. One Japanese plane would be shot down and crash into the grounds of the air base. Drake later recounted that he and other soldiers went to the wreck and took pieces from it. The surprise attack on the American base killed 2,403 people and damaged or destroyed more than a dozen ships in the harbor. More than 180 American aircraft were also destroyed in the assault. The Japanese strike brought the United States into the Second World War. Drake would go on to serve in island hopping campaigns in the Pacific, including taking part in the 1944 Battle of Saipan during the Marianas Campaign. He retired from the Army, having been awarded the World War II Victory Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Medal with Foreign Service bar and the Asiatic-Pacific Medal with two battle stars. After the war he worked as an engineer for the General Telephone Company and retired in 1981. Roughly a dozen survivors of the attack are still alive, according to the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. In December the last survivor of the USS Utah, Warren “Red” Upton, [passed away]() at the age of 105. Drake is survived by his son, two grandsons and three great-grandchildren. A military burial for Drake is set for Thursday, April 17. ## The latest on Task & Purpose - **Here is the training that the Army says is** [**no longer mandatory**]() - [**Navy fires**]() **commander of Colorado-based Information Operations Command** - **Firefighters help paratrooper** [**finish jump**]() **after missing the ground** - **Pregnant pilots and aircrew** [**grounded**]() **for first trimester under new Air Force flying rules** - [**Mold**]() **in privatized housing cost this Navy family their health and reenlistment bonus** ## Author Nicholas Slayton is a contributing editor for Task & Purpose, covering conflict for over 12 years, from the Arab Spring to the war in Ukraine. His previous reporting can be found on the non-profit Aslan Media, The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, The New Republic, The American Prospect, Architectural Digest, The Daily Beast, and the Los Angeles Downtown News. You can reach him at nicholas@taskandpurpose.com or find him on Twitter @NSlayton and Bluesky at @nslayton.bsky.social. ### Author social links [Twitter]()