Oldest known survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack dies at age 106

Vaughn P. Drake Jr., a Kentuckian believed to be the oldest survivor of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, has died at the age of 106, according to his family.

Drake passed away on April 7 in the Lexington, Kentucky, area, where he grew up, according to his obituary published on the website of the Milward Funeral Home in Lexington.

"My father never sought the spotlight, but he understood the importance of remembering and honoring history," Drake's 74-year-old son, Samuel Drake, of Lexington, said in a statement shared with ABC News on Tuesday by Military Missions, a Kentucky organization with which he's affiliated that provides care packages to U.S. military members stationed overseas.

Pacific Historic Park, a nonprofit group supporting historical sites in the Pacific, including Pearl Harbor, said in a Facebook post that Drake "was the oldest known Pearl Harbor survivor."

"He was proud of his service and proud to be part of a generation that stood up in defense of freedom," Samuel Drake, a Vietnam War veteran, said of his father. "To us, he was more than a hero; he was a devoted husband, a loving father and grandfather, and a humble man who lived with integrity every single day."

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Vaughn Drake was a 23-year-old member of the Army Corps of Engineers at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when a large squadron of Japanese military aircraft attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet there.

"We were still in the barracks when they first hit," Drake recalled in a 2016 interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader. "We were getting ready to go to breakfast, and we heard all these planes flying over and making a lot of noise."

Drake said he initially thought U.S. military aircraft were conducting practice maneuvers over Oahu "until we saw a bomb hit one of the buildings over in the Kaneohe Naval Air Station and smoke rose up."

"We knew by then it was more than just maneuvers," Drake said. "It had to be a real attack. It just didn't seem possible. No one could possibly believe that such a thing could happen and even when it was happening we didn't believe it."

The surprise attack, launched from Japanese aircraft carriers 230 miles north of Oahu, killed 2,390 American service members and civilians, according to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial website. More than 20 U.S. naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 American airplanes were either destroyed or damaged in the attack.

The attack prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to ask Congress to declare war on Japan, which marked the United States' entry into World War II. In a famous speech before a joint session of Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, Roosevelt described the attack as "a day that will live in infamy."

"I do feel like a part of history," Drake told the Herald-Leader in the 2016 interview. "I haven't made it the big thing in my life."

In a social media post on Tuesday, Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton wrote, "We have lost an amazing hero in Vaughn Drake, Jr. Our city, state, and country will be forever grateful for his military service."

Following Pearl Harbor, Drake fought in the Battle of Saipan in 1944 and later that year in the Marianas Campaign, which the National Parks Service said was the "most decisive battle of the Pacific Theater" during World War II.

Drake was awarded the special Congressional Medal for the Veterans of Pearl Harbor, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Medal with Foreign Service bar, the Asiatic-Pacific Medal with two battles stars, and the World War II Victory Medal, according to his obituary.

Following World War II, Drake, who was born in Winchester, Kentucky, on Nov. 6, 1918, attended the University of Kentucky College of Engineering and worked as a registered professional engineer for more than 50 years, according to his obituary. He retired in 1981 from the General Telephone Company, where he worked as a valuation engineering manager, supervising the construction of underground telephone conduits in and around Lexington, his obituary said.

Drake was preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Lina Wilson Drake. He is survived by his son, two grandsons and three great-grandchildren, according to his obituary.

Drake is scheduled to be buried on Thursday following a military service at the Winchester Cemetery near Lexington.