From Military.com:
“Oldest Living Pearl Harbor
Survivor Marks 105th Birthday”
(World War II veteran Joseph
Eskenazi, who is the oldest living veteran to survive the attack on Pearl
Harbor, holds a photo of his younger self, at an event celebrating his upcoming
105th birthday at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Jan. 11,
2023.)
Flag-waving admirers lined the
sidewalk outside the National World War II Museum in New Orleans on Wednesday
to greet the oldest living survivor of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor as
he marked his upcoming 105th birthday. “It feels great,” Joseph Eskenazi of
Redondo Beach, California, told reporters after posing for pictures with his
great-grandson, who is about to turn 5, his 21-month-old great-granddaughter
and six other World War II veterans, all in their 90s.
Eskenazi turns 105 on Jan. 30. He
had boarded an Amtrak train in California on Friday for the journey to New
Orleans. The other veterans, representing the Army, Navy and Marines, flew in
for the event. They were visiting thanks to the Soaring Valor Program, a
project of actor Gary Sinise’s charitable foundation dedicated to aiding
veterans and first responders. The program arranges trips to the museum for
World War II veterans and their guardians. Eskenazi was a private first class
in the Army when the attack occurred. His memories include being awakened when
a bomb fell — but didn't explode — near where he was sleeping at Schofield
Barracks, reverberating explosions as the battleship USS Arizona was sunk by
Japanese bombs, and machine gun fire from enemy planes kicking up dust around
him after he volunteered to drive a bulldozer across a field so it could be
used to clear runways. “I don't even know why — my hand just went up when they
asked for volunteers,” Eskenazi said. “Nobody else raised their hand because
they knew that it meant death. ... I did it unconsciously.” He was at the
Army's Schofield Barracks when the Dec. 7, 1941, attack began, bringing the
United States into the war. About 2,400 servicemen were killed.
Eskenazi and his fellow veterans
lined up for pictures amid exhibits of World War II aircraft and Higgins boats,
designed for beach landings. “Thank you guys for providing us a country that
was worth fighting for,” veteran Billy Hall, a who rose to the rank of major in
the Marines after enlisting in 1941, shouted to well-wishers. The museum opened
in 2000 as the National D-Day Museum and has expanded in size and scope since
then.
^ This is such a cool milestone
for one of the “Greatest Generation.” ^
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