He was born on the Fourth of July, less than 60 years after the Civil War.
A World War II veteran who fought the Japanese at Pearl Harbor turned 104 on Independence Day, and all he wanted for the milestone birthday was to hop in the sidecar of his motorcycle and enjoy a ride.
Ira “Ike” Shabb, of Beaverton, Oregon, said he is proud to share his birthday with America, having bravely defended his country for eight years as a member of the U.S. Navy. According to Portland’s NBC affiliate KGW8,.
And with a little help from local nonprofits, Washington County ABATE — Schaub put on his helmet and relived the glory days of riding his 1947 Harley with its 74 cubic inch engine.
“Yeah, that was a good bike,” he said. Fox 12 Oregon From the more modern Pig Sidecar.
The former U.S. Navy musician also brought back some less pleasant memories, including that Sunday morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when Imperial Japan launched its fateful attack on the Hawaiian naval base, catapulting America into the greatest war in world history.
His daughter, Kimberly Heinrichs, told Fox 12 that her father, who was 21 at the time, was starting his morning coffee when Japanese bombers flew over.
“[He] I had to drop it so I could hear everything and go up on deck to see. [battleship USS] “I think the Utah capsized at that moment,” she said.
That day, Shub, a sousaphone player then attached to the destroyer HMS Dobbin, put down his instrument, picked up some anti-aircraft shells, and loaded them into the guns that were ferociously firing back at Japanese aircraft.
“It was pretty scary,” Shabb told Fox. “I was just scared. ‘When is it going to hit me? When am I going to die?’ I didn’t know what was going to happen. The uncertainty… it’s hard to put into words. I can’t put it into words.”
Heinrichs previously said that after the battle, her father helped pull the bodies of fallen sailors from the island’s once-pristine waters.
“That was a big deal,” she said. He spoke to Hawaii News Now in 2021.“He was pulling bodies out of the water because, frankly, everybody was pulling bodies out of the water.”
“I’ve spent days and hours helping people,” she added last week.
For decades, veterans have avoided talking about their experiences, but recently have begun opening up, visiting Pearl Harbor and talking about that infamous day on its 75th anniversary.Number anniversary.
“I think it was a really traumatic experience for a lot of the men who went through that,” Michelle Ware, another of Schaub’s daughters, told the NBC affiliate. “I think it made it even more important for him to talk about what he went through.”
Chab added that he wanted younger generations to remember the sacrifices he and his comrades made to save the world from the dark specter of fascism.
“They should know everything they can about Pearl Harbor,” Schaub said.
Heinrichs said he never expected his father, who worked as an engineer after the war and was a father of five, to live to such an advanced age.
“We’re really proud of him,” she said. “He wasn’t one of the great heroes of old, but he’s mine.”
As he sips cocktails and makes “small talk” with his fraternity friends on Zoom every Friday night, Shab looks back and says his life has been “pretty good.”
“I can’t complain,” he said.
