By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Vaughn P. Drake, Jr., a central Kentucky native who was the oldest known survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, died last week at the age of 106.
According to Pacific Historic Parks, Drake, who was 23 at the time, was serving in the US Army and helping to build barracks at Kaneohe Naval Air Station on the east side of Oahu. His job was to run a temporary power plant, so the carpenters had electricity for their equipment.
“We were getting ready to go to breakfast, and we heard all these planes flying over and making a lot of noise,” Drake said during an interview with the Lexington Herald Leader in 2016.
At first they thought it was the Army Air Corps doing maneuvers and didn’t pay much attention, except to comment that they were “putting on a good show.” Then an officer told them the island was under attack, and they saw a bomb hit one of their buildings.
“We knew by then that it had to be a real attack,” Drake said.
During the war, he continued to serve with the Army Corps of Engineers in the Pacific, including Saipan in the Marianas campaign.
When the war ended, Drake, who was from Winchester, returned to Kentucky, had a family, and worked with General Telephone of Kentucky as an engineer until retirement. His wife of 65 years, Lina Wilson Drake, passed away on Dec. 23, 2011. He is survived by son Sam W. Drake, two grandsons, and three great grandchildren.
Tributearchive.com notes Drake was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the National Society of Professional Engineers, and was a charter member and past president of the Bluegrass Chapter of the Kentucky Society of Professional Engineers. He received the KSPE State Award in 1979 for “Outstanding Engineer in Industry.”
He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and was a former member of the Society of American Military Engineers. He was a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels and received the Mayor’s Spirit of Lexington Award. He was a life member of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association and a life member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.
Visitation is Thursday from noon to 2 p.m. at Milward Funeral Director’s Southland Drive, with military burial services at the Winchester Cemetery at 3 p.m.