Survivor of USS Arizona from Pearl Harbor attack dies at 100

[alp227]

Source: AP

YUBA CITY, Calif. (AP) — The oldest living crew member of the battleship USS Arizona to have survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has died in Northern California at the age of 100.

Retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Langdell died Feb. 4 at a nursing home in Yuba City, according to his son, Ted Langdell. A tally maintained by the USS Arizona Reunion Association, for which Langdell had served as president, identified him as not only the oldest Arizona survivor, but the last surviving officer from the naval ship that lost 1,177 men — nearly four-fifths of its crew — when it was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941.

Langdell was an ensign on an assignment that had him sleeping on a military base adjacent to the ship in Honolulu on the morning Pearl Harbor was attacked. He spent the following hours and days trying to rescue shipmates from the burning water, preparing for another possible air assault and leading the survivors tasked with removing the remains of the dead from the partially sunken ship, his son said.

"I felt absolutely helpless as I watched the attack," Langdell told The Associated Press on the 56th anniversary of the attack that drew the United States into World War II. "If I had been aboard, I would have been killed in that No. 2 (gun) turret. That was the one that blew up. It was my luck to be assigned off the ship that day."

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/1640899f5d064a259ff68cedc9a10751/survivor-uss-arizona-pearl-harbor-attack-dies-100

[femmocrat]

1. .

[Reter]

2. Now that was a true military hero

They don't make 'em like that anymore. RIP.

[msanthrope]

3. Rest well, Patriot. nt

[MADem]

4. More about this gentleman

He was from New Hampshire, educated in Boston at BU; an accountant. He was TAD to a Camera detail on base when the attack came, and that saved his life.

Commissioned Ensign D-V(G), US Naval Reserve, on 14 March 1941, he was ordered to the USS ARIZONA, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In August of the same year, he was assigned Temporary Duty with the Fleet Camera Party. He was billeted on Ford Island, about 100 yards from Battleship Row.

On 7 December 1941, Mr. Langdell was suddenly awakened in Bachelor Officers Quarters by the sounds of the Japanese surprise attack. Rushing outside, he witnessed the ARIZONA sink in just nine minutes. 1,177 sailors and Marines lost their lives aboard the ship; 335 survived.

http://pearlharborsurvivors.homestead.com/Langdell.html