Breitbart:
One of the last four survivors of the attack on the USS Arizona by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, died on Tuesday in California.
Lauren Bruner was a 21-year-old young man when the assault on Pearl Harbor began. Bruner served as Fire Controlman 3rd Class in charge of the ship’s .50-caliber guns and was the second to last person to escape the burning USS Arizona on that tragic day.
The National Park Service said 1,512 officers, sailors, and marines were assigned to the Arizona, but only 335 survived the attack. read more
Sad.
Salute, sir. Welcome home.
Story time…
Old man was getting out of basic and assigned to the USS Arizona when interrupted…
At the time my older brother (hemophilia) was again “going to die” (received extreme unction eight times before he finally croaked at age twenty two with eleven calendar years spent in hospital beds). They gave the old man a “hardship” discharge and sent him home. Without that I wouldn’t be here today as about six years later I came along.
He was kind of ashamed that he “didn’t serve” and only heard him talk about it one time. He also hated the Japanese until he drew his last breath. Many of his generation did.
Then again, maybe he would have been one of the survivors…
My mother was a teenager when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Her next door neighbor, Jack Stevens, went down with the Arizona. His mother never recovered from her grief.
Heaven is richer by his presence.
God speed sir!
God Bless this hero. May he forever R.I.P.
R.I.P. Lauren.
And so our institutional memory of why they fought.
The commies might just win the war against us after all.
I’ll bet the dems don’t have anything good to say about this hero.
My dad was on Enterprise, which was out to see that morning. Several aircraft tried to reach Pearl Harbor later, only to crash on landing, as the runways were blocked in fear of a Japanese invasion.
Like many back then, my dad rarely spoke of his time in. The Big E was reported sunk in the papers several times, only later to be corrected. Fake news, 40’s style.
My dad was a Marine in the 2nd Marine Division. Served on Tarawa. Never spoke of his experiences.