End of an era: Last Pearl Harbor veteran to be interred at USS Arizona Memorial

[turbinetree]

Source: Los Angeles Times

By Colleen ShalbyStaff Writer
Dec. 7, 2019
7:06 AM

Just before 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning 78 years ago, Lauren Bruner was preparing for church services and a date that would follow with a girl he’d met outside his Navy base.

The 21-year-old sailor was stationed as a fire controlman aboard the U.S. battleship Arizona, overseeing the vessel’s .50-caliber guns.

Then alarms rang out. A Japanese plane had bombed the ship in a surprise attack.

It took only nine minutes for the Arizona to sink after the first bomb hit. Bruner was struck by gunfire while trying to flee the inferno that consumed the ship, the second-to-last man to escape the explosion that killed 1,177, including his best friend; 335 survived.

Read more: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-07/pearl-harbor-survivor-last-interment-hawaii

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[Kid Berwyn]

1. We the People owe him a debt that can never be repaid.

Thank you, Seaman Bruner, for everything.

[Dem2theMax]

2. Truly, the greatest generation.

I'm proud to say both of my parents held that title as well.

R.I.P. Mr. Bruner. Thank you sir, for your service.

[SonofDonald]

3. My Father was a navy shore patrol member

In Pearl Harbor in the early fifties and had swam and scuba dived around the wreck back when it had only been on the bottom for 10-11 years

He told me what it had looked like back then and said it was the spookiest thing to be right there alongside it

I finally got to see it up close two years ago and to me it was just as he had described

Spooky and humbling beyond belief

One million pounds of gunpowder had detonated and had blown it's bow off killing 1177 men

[riversedge]

4. graveyards RIP

[marble falls]

5. The song that will played at his services, no doubt in my mind ....

[colsohlibgal]

6. Sad, Time Marches On

I ponder the sweep of time often. Every 100 years there is almost a total change in world population give or take a few of us like the Olivia DeHavilands and Norman Lloyds of the world.

[COLGATE4]

7. I'm still at a loss to understand why

the Navy decided to block interment in Arizona for the last 2 remaining survivors. Perhaps they have already indicated that they did not wish to use this option. Otherwise, it seems to make little sense.

[sarisataka]

9. That is the reason

I read elsewhere they remaining survivors have indicated they have other plans and do not wish to be returned to the ship when they pass.

[pansypoo53219]

8. not the last pearl harbor vet. maybe last arizona vet. NPR had a live vet today.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. There are 3 left (from the Arizona)

https://www.denverpost.com/2019/12/07/pearl-harbor-colorado-veteran/

[Squidly]

11. It just occured to me

That the scene in the new Midway movie during the Pearl Harbor sequence must have been based on him and his escape from the Arizona. Bless him and his shipmates.