Ray Chavez, the oldest surviving veteran of Pearl Harbor, died Wednesday in California at the age of 106.

“Ray was the epitome of the greatest generation,” said Richard Rovsek, a trustee of the nonprofit Spirit of Liberty Foundation in Rancho Santa Fe, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. “He was always proud to be an American and proud of the military.”

Kathleen Chavez, who had been her father’s live-in caregiver for more than 20 years, said Ray who'd been in hospice care, asked to be buried at Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego.

He was born in San Bernardino in 1911 and grew up in San Diego’s Old Town and Logan Heights communities; his large family ran a wholesale flower business, the news outlet said.

At 27, in 1938, he joined the Navy and was stationed with the minesweeper Condor at Pearl Harbor. On Dec. 7, 1941, he was a seaman first class; after the attack, he spent the next nine days on continuous duty in and around Pearl Harbor, the paper said.

He once said the horrors he saw at Pearl Harbor left deep trauma.

His daughter, who was adopted in a San Diego orphanage in 1957, added that "he never saw himself as any different from the other men he served with. He’d always say, ‘I’m no hero. I just did my job.’”

She told The Union-Tribune her father was the child of Mexican immigrants, and although he experienced racism and discrimination in childhood and in the Navy, he remained a proud American.

Chavez, who loved nonfiction books and was into travel, spent 30 years as a groundskeeper at the University of California, San Diego, and then ran his own landscaping and grounds keeping business in the Poway area until he retired at 96.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/old...l-harbor-dies-at-106

Rest in peace, Ray Chavez, a true American, and thank you for your service.

Fair winds and following seas shipmate....

RIP, sailor.

Those guys have always been my heroes.

When you're a 106, it's a good day to die.

Rest well, old sailor, and thank you for your service.

The news leaves me with a hollow feeling in my gut.
RIP

quote:

until he retired at 96.

They dont make em like that anymore.

He can now join all his mates. The circle is complete. Rip, all of you.

R.I.P. to you Mr. Chavez.

RIP

Another WWII Treasure has been called home.
By His hand.
I believe him when he (and many many others) say they were no heroes, they simply did their job...

quote:

Originally posted by gfrank:

quote:

until he retired at 96.

They dont make em like that anymore.

They sure don’t. RIP

Fair winds and following seas, sailor.

RIP sailor. You have brought honor and respect to yourself and the Navy. Rest well!

RIP Ray Chavez

USS Condor (AMc-14) was a coastal minesweeper of the United States Navy. The ship was constructed as the wooden-hulled purse seiner New Example at Tacoma, Washington in 1937. Acquired by the U.S. Navy on 28 October 1940, converted into a coastal minesweeper and placed in service on 18 April 1941.

The Coast Guard manned Condor departed for Hawaii 14 May 1941 arriving on 28 May for service in Hawaiian waters. Condor was in Pearl Harbor on the day the attack occurred and is believed to have made the first enemy contact at 0350 and at 0357 notified USS Ward by visual signals of a periscope sighting whereupon Ward began searching for the contact. At about 0637 Ward sighted a periscope apparently tailing USS Antares whereupon she attacked the target, thus firing the first shots of the Pacific War. They later found out that they spotted the periscope of a Japanese midget submarine attempting to get into the harbor. Condor spent the war in or near Hawaii with the U.S. Navy.