One of many final remaining survivors of the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor, Richard C. Higgins, died on Tuesday on the age of 102.
He died of pure causes, based on his granddaughter, Angela Norton. She mentioned he died at her house, the place he had been residing.
Mr. Higgins was stationed on the Pearl Harbor naval base as a radioman on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japan launched a shock bombing assault on the bottom. The airstrike killed greater than 2,400 Individuals and prompted america to declare warfare on Japan.
Mr. Higgins, who later in his life typically spoke about his expertise to schoolchildren and on social media, described in a 2020 Instagram video pushing planes away from one another as bombs fell round him.
“I was moving planes away from ones that were on fire, because when the tanks exploded, they threw burning gas on the others,” he mentioned.
In an oral history interview in 2008, he recalled being woke up by explosions and dashing to the lanai, or porch, of his quarters. “I jumped out of my bunk and I ran over to the edge of the lanai and just as I got there, a plane went right over the barracks,” he mentioned.
The airplane had “big red meatballs on it,” he mentioned, referring to Japan’s rising solar insignia, “so there was no doubt what was happening in my mind.”
Richard Clyde Higgins was born July 24, 1921, on a farm close to Mangum, Okla., and lived by the Mud Bowl and the Nice Despair. He joined the Navy in 1939 and retired 20 years later, after which he labored as an aeronautics engineer.
Ms. Norton mentioned that in his later years, her grandfather’s focus was on sharing his story, particularly with younger folks.
“He never thought that he was a hero; the heroes were those who didn’t come home,” she mentioned. “But he wanted to make sure their stories continue to be told, and we remember what an incredible country we live in and what sacrifices they made for us to have our freedoms.”
