The oldest surviving nation in Pearl Harbor attacks at 106

Ray Chavez, the country's veteran survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack, died Wednesday morning at his home in California, the San Diego Union-Tribune announced. He was 106 years old.

>> Read more new trends

Three years ago, veterans of Pearl Harbor acknowledged that Chavez was the oldest survivor of the Japanese attack in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, the newspaper reported. Chavez was a quartermaster of the USS Condor at the time of the attack, KSWB reported.

"Ray Chavez has been a very active member for years (from the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association) and I admire this man," Stu Hedley, 97, a former Navy Master, retired at the USS West Virginia at the time of the attack. says the Union-Tribune.

Chavez was born in San Bernardino, California in 1911 and raised in San Diego, the newspaper reported. In 1938 he joined the Navy and was assigned to the USS Condor at Pearl Harbor.

On December 7, 1941, at 3:45 am, Chavez's crew swept the eastern entrance of the harbor when he saw the periscope of a Japanese submarine. After the depth charges were dropped to plunge the submarine into 1,500 feet of water, the next few hours passed without incident.

He told Union-Tribune that he was sleeping near Ewa Beach when the Japanese bomb attack began around 8 am.

>> Photos: Notable deaths of 2018

"My wife came running and said," We are attacked "and I said," Who will attack us? Nobody, "Chavez told the newspaper. "She said that the whole harbor was on fire and when I went out, I saw that everything was black because of the burning oil."

Mr. Chavez, who stated that the only Republican for whom he had voted was Dwight D. Eisenhower, caused a small stir in May when he was invited to meet President Donald Trump at the White House for the Memorial Day, said his daughter Kathleen at Union-Tribune. . The night before his oval office visit, Chavez was interviewed at his hotel by a CNN reporter and said on a nationally broadcast video about Trump: "I did not vote for this guy. "

However, Chavez impressed the president the next day and Trump congratulated the veteran at Memorial Day Memorial Services. The White House tweeted his sympathies Wednesday.

Chavez also met with Secretary of Defense James Mattis and visited national monuments in May, KSWB reported.

Chavez has not mentioned the attack for many years, said his daughter, before traveling to Hawaii for the 50th anniversary of the 1991 attack, the daily Union-Tribune reported.

"War, be right in it," Chavez told KNSD, while recalling his military career. "It was a surprise, I saw it all, smoke and fire.