Joe Langdell, the oldest living survivor of Pearl Harbor's USS Arizona, died Wednesday at the age of 100.
Langdell, who left his job as a junior accountant in Boston to join the Navy in 1940, was one of 344 from the Arizona to survive the Dec. 7, 1941 attack. With his death, only eight crewmen remain, The Arizona Republic reports. Langdell's first assignment was at the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, and on Dec. 6, 1941, he spent the night in the barracks on a small patch of land in Pearl Harbor after a training session.
He was awakened by the attack, and helped injured sailors and Marines get medical care, and in the days following recovered bodies. He remained in the Navy through World War II, and throughout his life wore a USS Arizona hat. In a 2006 video interview with his son Ted, he said, "The lesson I've learned from that experience is that the 1,177 men entombed on the ship right now will never know the love of a wife or the joy of grandchildren. We all have to remember that they did not die in vain."
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Services will be held for Langdell, and ultimately his remains will be interred in the wreckage of the USS Arizona. Crew members assigned to the Arizona on Dec. 7, 1941, can have their remains laid to rest near the No. 4 gun turret, and 32 have chosen to do so.
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