One of the last survivors of USS Arizona dies

[Cooley Hurd]

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/military/clarendon-hetrick-dies-1-last-7-uss-arizona-survivors-attack-pearl-harbor



By KEITH ROGERS
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Clarendon “Clare” Hetrick, one of the last seven USS Arizona survivors of the Pearl Harbor attack that launched the United States into World War II, died in a Las Vegas hospital Monday, his family said. He was 92.

“It’s a great loss to us,” his granddaughter, Stephanie Hetrick, of Las Vegas, said Thursday.

Clare Hetrick had planned to attend ceremonies for the upcoming 75th anniversary of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack at the sunken USS Arizona Memorial at Oahu, Hawaii.

“Come hell or high water, he was going to go,” Stephanie Hetrick said. “Every year he was ready to go to the Arizona in Hawaii to honor his brothers who were lost.”

She said his ashes will be interred Dec. 7 in the USS Arizona along with those of his wife, Jeannie Hetrick, who died in 2014, and a shipmate, John Anderson. She said he died Monday night at University Medical Center where he was recovering from lip cancer surgery.

Of the 2,403 men and women who died in the attack by Japanese warplanes, almost half — 1,177 — were on the Arizona. About 335 of those aboard the Arizona survived that day.

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[RKP5637]

1. Brave men! K&R!!! n/t

[pintobean]

2. .

[femmocrat]

3. >.

[linuxman]

4. Gospeed.

It's sad to think how few of those men are still on this earth, having seen such an important event as that was.

Fair winds and following seas.

[keithbvadu2]

5. Rest in Peace, shipmate.

[irisblue]

6. .

[A HERETIC I AM]

7. It's fascinating that this....

Is the same as this



Fair winds and following seas, Airman and Seaman.

(He joined the Air Force after WWII and served in Korea, according to this.)

[tblue37]

8. My father was a 19-year-old airman at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked.

He died in 1992, at age 71. The previous autumn he had made a trip to visit the last living members of his WWII squadron, and then made an long road trip to visit all 6 of his kids in the many different states we had settled in.

[Rhiannon12866]

9. How brave he had to be at such a young age!

Thank you for sharing that with us...

[Rhiannon12866]

10. K&R! What a remarkable life he lived, we must always remember...

Godspeed, Seaman Hetrick!

[Lucinda]

11. ...

Safe passage sir.