82nd Commemoration…
The destroyer tender USS Dobbin (AD-3) was at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941. Her crew sprang to action and, in addition to her own armament, broke out four spare .50 caliber machine guns and 13 spare .30 caliber Lewis guns from her stores and quickly got them into action.
Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941. View taken around 0926 hrs. in the morning of 7 December, from an automobile on the road in the Aiea area, looking about WSW with destroyer moorings closest to the camera. In the center of the photograph are: USS Dobbin (AD-3), with destroyers Hull (DD-350), Dewey (DD-349), Worden (DD-352) and MacDonough (DD-351) alongside. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-33045
One bluejacket aboard that day was 21-year-old Musician’s Mate Ira “Ike” Schab, and the Pearl Harbor survivor– who helped load Dobbin’s machine guns that morning while watching USS Utah collapse– is one of the dwindling few veterans from the attack.
He is one of just six Pearl Harbor vets who have been attending the services along Battleship Row and elsewhere this week.
Pearl Harbor survivor Ira Schab, now 103, is the last survivor from Navy Band “Lucky” 13 and, appropriately, was welcomed to Hawaii by the U.S. Pacific Fleet Band this week
Schab left the Navy in 1947 and always regretted never making Band Master, something the Navy fixed a few years back.
Never forget.
A (very) small personal connection to Ike’s story… in October of 1983, I reported to USS Michigan and was met topside by the man that I was replacing (who was glad to see me, of course). He gave me a complete tour and welcomed me warmly to the ship.
His name? Karl Schaub… Ike’s son…
It continues to amaze me how small the world is. Years ago when working as a defense contractor, I was sent to Israel to upgrade some fire control panels in a Sa’ar V corvette. It turned out the IDF minder that escorted me everywhere had gone to the same high school in Mississippi that I went to just a couple of years off. Sure enough, when I got back home I was able to find him in one of my yearbooks.