If you listen closely, you can still hear the old ship's bell ringing, even when the dock stands empty. The standing crowd thins with time, yet the bell's echo carries farther than steel ever could. The bell's cadence keeps the memory alive, long after the harbor lies silent.
A Life That Stood Watch
Ira “Ike” Schab lived to 105 and carried a devastating morning across an entire century. When Japanese aircraft tore across the sky over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he watched it happen with a young sailor's eyes.
America felt secure because of the two oceans on both coasts, but when smoke rolled across the harbor, and metal screamed under impact and fire, that sense of security vanished in an instant.
After the war, Schab built a life and raised a family, while remaining a piece of living history. He spoke about Pearl Harbor without drama or a polished speech; he described duty rather than heroics.
As he passed, we lost another firsthand voice who could say:
"I was there."
Why America Keeps Count
Our country has always tracked its witnesses to history. Civil War veterans marched in parades decades after the war ended. Newspapers printed updates on the last surviving veterans of important battles; blue and gray uniforms appeared side by side, honoring the sacrifice of both the North and South. Courage earns the memories, despite politics.
Remembering the witnesses became a habit that never disappeared. As history rolled on, America remembered the last survivors of World War I, then World War II. Names mattered because their memory mattered. History turns from people like Schab telling their story to ink on a page when living testimony dies.
Pearl Harbor as Human Memory
Carrying a different note, Pearl Harbor remained significant because survivors carried the burn scars, hearing loss, and shrapnel, telling the story long before accurately written words ever did.
The attack pulled America out of its isolationism and into a global conflict that shaped the modern world, and to succeed, the country demanded everything from everyday people placed in extraordinary circumstances.
When tracking survivors, we honor responsibility more than longevity, because events like Pearl Harbor and the sacrifices of millions of people like Ike Schab remind us — at least those with honor — who paid the price, teaching the important lesson that freedom never comes free.
What Fades Too Easily
When people on the left and the legacy media complain about America, they often skip past the people who stood between chaos and survival. Those sailors, soldiers, airmen, and Marines didn't fight for slogans; they fought for families, towns, and, most importantly, futures they might never see. While many never returned home, those who did carried their wounds into old age, visible and unseen.
Because it's easier to forget them, critics' complaints are effortless, and gratitude becomes convenient. However, when a nation is built on sacrifice, it loses its footing as memories fade to black.
Those same sacrifices were made by our current generation of warriors, too. Because of our society's two-second memory span, their sacrifices are mostly forgotten as the legacy media focuses all its energy on President Donald Trump. There will come a time when future generations will discover a declining roster of men and women fighting to keep our country safe.
Final Thoughts
Tracking the final witnesses by name reveals the significance of the event and its priorities: when a society values comfort alone, it lets memory fade. But when societies value sacrifice, they will always remember and keep watch.
War isn't glorified by counting survivors; it honors those who answered when history showed up at the doorstep, unannounced.
Those who make the sacrifice to defend our nation never sought praise; they accepted duty, endured loss, and quietly returned home. Any nation worth its salt should at least remember them until the final roll call ends.
We still hear the bell, but it's growing softer now, heard by fewer ears. Regardless, the sound still travels, carrying each remembered name across the water, remembering Americans who stood watch when the horizon went dark.
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