Ohio survivor of Pearl Harbor dies; last to see airfield bombed

Attack on Wheeler Field. Getty Image

Attack on Wheeler Field. Getty Image

A Cleveland native believed to be the last surviving veteran to see the attack on Wheeler Army Airfield at Pearl Harbor died last week in Florida, according to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer.

John Seelie was 94 and lived in Port Charlotte, Fla.

"They were 75 feet off the ground. You could see the Japanese pilots' faces clearly," he told an interviewer. "We grabbed our M-1 rifles and our redesigned steel helmets we had just been issued, a couple of .30 caliber machine guns and ran outside … We started firing at the planes. Whether we knocked an enemy plane down, nobody knows."

REMEMBERING WWII

101-year-old Dayton man relives Doolittle Raid

About the Author