From the March 27, 2012, Lake County (Cal.) Record Bee "Pearl Harbor survivor dies at 87."
Walter H. Urmann, one of the last Pearl harbor survivors in Lake County died March 25th.
He was born Nov. 27, 1923, in Windsor and lived there until joining the Navy at age 17.
During the attack, he was on the USS Blue which was able to get underway and was the third vessel to get out of the harbor. He remembered seeing a Japanese pilot wave at him as he flew by.
Mr. Urmann was also at the Battle of Guadalcanal where his ship was sunk August 22, 1942 in "Iron Bottom Sound," so named for the number of ships sunk there during the battle. He figured he was lucky in that battle because a torpedo hit where his bunk was and had he been in it, he would have died.
He served on other destroyers during the rest of the war and was active in the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Chapter 23, North.
--GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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