Bob Fernandez, a 100-year-old survivor of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, died shortly after deteriorating well being prompted him to skip a visit to Hawaii to attend final week’s remembrance ceremony marking the 83rd anniversary of the assault.

Fernandez died peacefully on the Lodi, California, dwelling of his nephew, Joe Guthrie, on Wednesday. Guthrie’s daughter, Halie Torrrell, was holding his hand when he took his final breath. Fernandez suffered a stroke a couple of month in the past that prompted him to decelerate however Guthrie mentioned medical doctors attributed his situation to age.

“It was his time,” Guthrie mentioned.

Fernandez was a 17-year-old sailor on board the united statesCurtiss in the course of the Dec. 7, 1941, assault that propelled the U.S. into World Battle II. A multitude prepare dinner, he was ready tables and bringing sailors morning espresso and meals after they heard an alarm sound. By means of a porthole, Fernandez noticed a aircraft fly by with the purple ball insignia recognized to be painted on Japanese plane.

He rushed down three decks to {a magazine} room the place he and different sailors waited for somebody to unlock a door storing shells so they may move them to the ship’s weapons. He has instructed interviewers over time that a few of his fellow sailors have been praying and crying as they heard gunfire above.

“I felt form of scared as a result of I didn’t know what the hell was occurring,” Fernandez instructed The Related Press in an interview weeks earlier than his loss of life.

Fernandez’s ship, the Curtiss, misplaced 21 males and almost 60 of its sailors have been injured. The bombing killed greater than 2,300 U.S. servicemen. Practically half, or 1,177, have been sailors and Marines on board the united statesArizona, which sank in the course of the battle.

“We misplaced a number of good individuals, . They didn’t do nothing,” Fernandez mentioned. “However we by no means know what’s going to occur in a struggle.”

Fernandez had been planning to return to Pearl Harbor final week to attend an annual commemoration hosted by the Navy and the Nationwide Park Service however turned too weak to make the journey, Guthrie mentioned.

He was “so proud” of his six years within the Navy, all of it aboard the united statesCurtiss, Guthrie mentioned. Most of his informal garments, like hats and shirts, have been associated to his service.

“It was simply fully ingrained in him,” his nephew mentioned.

Fernandez labored as a forklift driver at a cannery in San Leandro, California, after the struggle. His spouse of 65 years, Mary Fernandez, died in 2014.

He loved music and dancing, and till lately attended weekly music performances at a neighborhood park and a restaurant. He helped neighbors in his trailer park handle their yards till he moved in with Guthrie final yr.

“I’d do yard work and cut up firewood and he’d swing the axe a little bit bit,” Guthrie mentioned. “We’d name it his bodily remedy.”

Fernandez’s recommendation for dwelling a protracted life included stopping consuming when you’re full and marching up stairs. He mentioned it was OK to take a nap, however do one thing like laundry or wash dishes earlier than going to mattress. He advisable being variety to everybody.

Guthrie mentioned he thinks Fernandez would need to be remembered for bringing individuals pleasure.

“He would rake individuals’s yards in the event that they couldn’t do it. He would paint a fence. He would assist any person,” Guthrie mentioned. “He would give individuals cash in the event that they wanted one thing. He was so beneficiant and such a form individual. He made pals in all places.”

Fernandez is survived by his oldest son, Robert J. Fernandez, a granddaughter and several other great-grandchildren.

There are 16 recognized survivors of Pearl Harbor which can be nonetheless alive, in response to an inventory maintained by Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. All of them are at the very least 100 years outdated.

Fernandez’s loss of life would have introduced the quantity to fifteen however Farley lately discovered of a further survivor.