The oldest living survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor dies at 105

(CNN) — Warren “Red” Upton, a 105-year-old World War II US veteran who was the oldest living survivor of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, died on Christmas Day, according to his family and the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, a veteran’s organization.

Upton was a “very humble, gentle, soft-spoken man,” who was “well-read and well-informed with current affairs,” Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, told CNN.

“Warren never considered himself a hero,” Farley said.

“He said: ‘A lot of people would consider the survivors of Pearl Harbor “heroes,” but if you ask anybody, the real heroes are the ones who never made it home,’” Farley recalled.

Upton passed away at a hospital in Los Gatos, California, early Wednesday morning, after suffering a bout of pneumonia for several days, said Farley, who said she’s been in constant contact with the veteran’s family.

Barbara Upton, 57, told CNN she and her brother were with their father in the hospital at the time of his death.

“He was a very good and humble man, and a little bit shy,” Upton’s daughter said. “He and my mom have always taught us good values.”

Upton was also the last surviving crew member of the battleship USS Utah, one of the seven ships sunk during the attack on December 7, 1941, according to Farley.

With his death, there are 15 survivors of Pearl Harbor that are known to still be alive, Farley said, adding there were 87,000 military personnel on Oahu on the day of the attack.

Upton’s death came nearly three weeks after the 83rd anniversary of Pearl Harbor and two months after he celebrated his 105th birthday in mid-October, according to Friends of the National World War II Memorial.

The last time Upton went to Hawaii was in 2019, when he attended a remembrance ceremony at the USS Utah Memorial, Farley told CNN.

Born on October 17, 1919, in El Dorado, California, Upton served as a Navy radioman aboard the USS Utah, according to Farley and Upton’s daughter.

The USS Utah was a Florida-class dreadnought battleship that was moored off Ford Island at Pearl Harbor when Japanese forces attacked the Hawaii naval base in the early morning of December 7, 1941, according to the National Park Service.

The attack, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously described it as “a date which will live in infamy,” prompted the US to declare war on Japan the following day.

Upton, then 22, was shaving aboard the Utah when he felt the first torpedo hitting the battleship, he recalled during his 99th birthday celebration in 2018.

A few seconds later, a second torpedo hit, causing the ship to list and capsize.

The crew was forced to abandon ship and swim for land. The Utah quickly rolled over and sank, with 58 of its crew dead that day. A total of 461 crew members, including Upton, survived, according to the National Park Service.

Upton recalled swimming towards Ford Island after escaping the ship. While in the water, he helped a fellow crew member who couldn’t swim reach shore.

Upton, who got the nickname “Red” for his natural thick, red hair, recalled the man shouting at him, “Red, do you know how to swim?”

After reaching Ford Island, Upton said he jumped into a ditch, which was originally being dug up for sewer pipes, to take cover from attacking Japanese warplanes. Upton sheltered in the ditch until a flatbed truck came in and took him to safety, he said.

Upton continued to serve as a radioman throughout the war and later served in the Korean War, according to Farley. He converted to Catholicism during his time in the Navy, his daughter said.

After the war, Upton returned to California, where he worked as secretary of Pearl Harbor Survivors Chapter 7 in San Jose, where he facilitated meetings and reported deaths of survivors from his chapter.

Upton raised a family with his wife, Valeria Gene Parker, a former Navy nurse who joined more than 11,000 women in the Navy Nurse Corps during the war, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Parker passed away in 2018, according to her obituary. She was 97.

“He mourned his wife’s death every single day,” Farley said.

While Upton’s funeral arrangements are pending, his final wishes were to be buried side-by-side with his wife instead of being interred within the USS Utah’s wreckage, a solemn yet optional tradition among Pearl Harbor survivors, according to Farley.

“Warren told me a few years back, ‘Kathy, I was lucky enough to make it off the ship. I’m not going back there again,’” Farley told CNN.

Upton is survived by his five children and several grandchildren, according to Farley.

Upton was one of the few surviving World War II veterans in the United States, where the population of the “Greatest Generation” is rapidly declining. Of the 16.4 million Americans who served, only 66,143 – less than 1% – are still alive today, according to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Warren Upton’s religious upbringing. He converted to Catholicism when he joined the Navy.

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