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, house 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 few month in the past that precipitated him to decelerate however Guthrie mentioned docs attributed his situation to age.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, DECEMBER 7, 1941, PEARL HARBOR ATTACK KILLS 2,403 AMERICANS, LAUNCHES US INTO WWII
“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 Conflict II. A multitude prepare dinner, he was ready tables and bringing sailors morning espresso and meals once they heard an alarm sound. By way of a porthole, Fernandez noticed a airplane fly by with the crimson ball insignia identified to be painted on Japanese plane.
Pearl Harbor Navy veteran Bob Fernandez is photographed at house 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 may move 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 demise.
Fernandez’s ship, the Curtiss, misplaced 21 males and almost 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 recognize. They didn’t do nothing,” Fernandez mentioned. “However we by no means know what’s going to occur in a conflict.”
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 grew to become 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 utterly ingrained in him,” his nephew mentioned.
Fernandez labored as a forklift driver at a cannery in San Leandro, California, after the conflict. 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 care for their yards till he moved in with Guthrie final 12 months.
“I’d do yard work and break up firewood and he’d swing the axe a bit bit,” Guthrie mentioned. “We’d name it his bodily remedy.”
Fernandez’s recommendation for residing a protracted 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 really useful being variety 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 any individual,” Guthrie mentioned. “He would give folks cash in the event that they wanted one thing. He was so beneficiant and such a sort individual. He made associates in all places.”
Fernandez is survived by his oldest son, Robert J. Fernandez, a granddaughter and a number of other great-grandchildren.
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There are 16 identified survivors of Pearl Harbor which can be nonetheless alive, based on an inventory maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. All of them are at the very least 100 years previous.
Fernandez’s demise would have introduced the quantity to fifteen, however Farley not too long ago discovered of a further survivor.
