103-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor Ken Schubring recalls Dec. 7 attack
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Pearl Harbor survivor Ken Schubring enlisted in the military when he was just 17 years old.
“Everything seemed to point towards that possibility coming up sooner or later,” the 103-year-old told WANF-TV this week, days before the anniversary of the 1941 attack. “So there’s not much of a decision to be made.”
Schubring finished his shift on the morning of December 7, 1941, and then went to eat.
“I went to have breakfast after my mission, and shortly before 8 a.m. an explosion shook our shelters,” he said at this year’s Veterans Day ceremony held at the National World War II Museum, Spirit America reported. “Everyone ran out.”
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USS Arizona burned during the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. (US Navy/Messengers)
“The sky was full of planes and dive bombers,” he continued. “I climbed on deck, crawled to a nearby ditch… and stayed there until the first wave was over.”
In another interview, Schubring told CBS News that despite his age, the attack was something he “will never forget.”
And he is a rarity, as he was one of 13 Pearl Harbor survivors as the 84th anniversary of the attack approaches on Sunday.
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Aerial view after the attack on Pearl Harbor. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
His son, Ken Schubring Jr., told CBS he wanted Americans to remember the “sacrifice” of those who experienced Pearl Harbor.
“I mean, you can’t put a price on the sacrifice made that day and afterwards, years later. You can’t forget it,” he said.
Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn said it was a “pleasure” to help Schubring attend the World War II Museum ceremony last month.
“God bless the veterans who bravely served our country,” he wrote in X last month. “It was my pleasure to help World War II Veteran and Pearl Harbor survivor Ken Schubring Sr. attend this ceremony and thus be honored for all he sacrificed for our nation.”
After Pearl Harbor, Schubring became a flight engineer on B-29 bombers operating in the Pacific.
“We would fly directly over or around Iwo Jima towards our targets,” he told WANF. “The bombings were individual bombings.”
During the attack, an explosion occurred at the Naval Air Station on Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. (Fox Photos/Getty Images)
Schubring still remembers where he was when he heard that the Japanese had surrendered.
“About two hours before we returned from the bombing attack on Osaka… the radio announced that Emperor Hirohito had requested a ceasefire,” he told the station. “The war was over.”
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Even after leaving the military, Schubring continued to fight for justice and worked for racial school integration in Athens, Georgia, where he was school board president.
“I remember being called a lot of bad things, but my dad never wavered,” his son told CBS about the controversial policy at the time.
