Bob Fernandez, a 100-year-old survivor of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, died shortly after deteriorating well being prompted him to skip a visit to Hawaii to attend final week’s remembrance ceremony marking the 83rd anniversary of the assault.
Fernandez died peacefully on the Lodi, California, dwelling of his nephew, Joe Guthrie, on Wednesday. Guthrie’s daughter, Halie Torrrell, was holding his hand when he took his final breath. Fernandez suffered a stroke a couple of month in the past that brought about him to decelerate however Guthrie mentioned medical doctors attributed his situation to age.
“It was his time,” Guthrie mentioned.
Fernandez was a 17-year-old sailor on board the usCurtiss in the course of the Dec. 7, 1941, assault that propelled the U.S. into World War II. A large number prepare dinner, he was ready tables and bringing sailors morning espresso and meals after they heard an alarm sound. By a porthole, Fernandez noticed a aircraft fly by with the purple ball insignia identified to be painted on Japanese plane.
Pearl Harbor Navy veteran Bob Fernandez is photographed at dwelling Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Lodi, Calif. (AP Picture/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
He rushed down three decks to {a magazine} room the place he and different sailors waited for somebody to unlock a door storing shells so they might go them to the ship’s weapons. He has advised interviewers through the years that a few of his fellow sailors had been praying and crying as they heard gunfire above.
“I felt type of scared as a result of I didn’t know what the hell was occurring,” Fernandez advised The Related Press in an interview weeks earlier than his loss of life.
Fernandez’s ship, the Curtiss, misplaced 21 males and practically 60 of its sailors had been injured. The bombing killed greater than 2,300 U.S. servicemen. Almost half, or 1,177, had been sailors and Marines on board the usArizona, which sank in the course of the battle.
“We misplaced a number of good folks, you realize. They didn’t do nothing,” Fernandez mentioned. “However we by no means know what’s going to occur in a battle.”
Fernandez had been planning to return to Pearl Harbor final week to attend an annual commemoration hosted by the Navy and the Nationwide Park Service however turned too weak to make the journey, Guthrie mentioned.
He was “so proud” of his six years within the Navy, all of it aboard the usCurtiss, Guthrie mentioned. Most of his informal garments, like hats and shirts, had been associated to his service.
“It was simply fully ingrained in him,” his nephew mentioned.
Fernandez labored as a forklift driver at a cannery in San Leandro, California, after the battle. His spouse of 65 years, Mary Fernandez, died in 2014.
He loved music and dancing, and till not too long ago attended weekly music performances at a neighborhood park and a restaurant. He helped neighbors in his trailer park maintain their yards till he moved in with Guthrie final 12 months.
“I’d do yard work and cut up firewood and he’d swing the axe just a little bit,” Guthrie mentioned. “We’d name it his bodily remedy.”
Fernandez’s recommendation for residing an extended life included stopping consuming when you’re full and marching up stairs. He mentioned it was OK to take a nap, however do one thing like laundry or wash dishes earlier than going to mattress. He advisable being type to everybody.
Guthrie mentioned he thinks Fernandez would need to be remembered for bringing folks pleasure.
“He would rake folks’s yards in the event that they couldn’t do it. He would paint a fence. He would assist anyone,” Guthrie mentioned. “He would give folks cash in the event that they wanted one thing. He was so beneficiant and such a form individual. He made pals all over the place.”
Fernandez is survived by his oldest son, Robert J. Fernandez, a granddaughter and several other great-grandchildren.
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There are 16 identified survivors of Pearl Harbor which are nonetheless alive, based on a listing maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. All of them are not less than 100 years previous.
Fernandez’s loss of life would have introduced the quantity to fifteen, however Farley not too long ago discovered of an extra survivor.
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