Two lost

A bit back when we talked about Pearl Harbor vets, the source article said there were a total of 16 still left. Sadly, as of Christmas that number is down to 15.

Warren Upton, the oldest living survivor of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, has died. He was 105.

Upton’s Christmas Day death — at a hospital in Los Gatos, Calif. — followed a bout with pneumonia, Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, told the Associated Press.

Beyond being the oldest living survivor of the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Upton was also the last living survivor of the USS Utah — a naval ship that sank after being hit by two torpedoes during the early minutes of the Hawaii attack, per the nonprofit.

Upton continued to serve as a radioman during World War II and later started a family with wife Gene, who Pacific Historic Parks said died in 2018.

The late veteran previously told the AP in 2020 that he was about to shave before the first torpedo struck the USS Utah. He added that nobody on board understood why the ship had shaken ahead of the second torpedo, which then caused it to capsize.

The outlet, which cites military historian J. Michael Wenger, said 87,000 military personnel were on Oahu on Dec. 7, 1941, and only 15 are still alive following Upton’s death. People

Lazzaro, 27, a weapons expert with 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), died after a hunter hit him with a stray round at a shooting range on Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, on Dec. 22, Task and Purpose first reported Thursday. Lazzaro was driving to the range to help another soldier who was experiencing car trouble, the publication said, citing a spokesperson.

Prior to enlisting in the Army, Lazzaro was a starting quarterback at Central Michigan University, where he helped lead the team to the Mid-American Conference Championship in 2019. He received the team’s prestigious Kurt Dobronski Award that year and earned the nickname “Touchdown Tommy” for his performance on the gridiron, his father said.

After he graduated from CMU with a business degree in hand, Lazzaro returned to his home state of Colorado and took a job in sales. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he was unsatisfied with sitting on Zoom calls and the lack of camaraderie he experienced — and missed — on the football field.

So it was unsurprising, perhaps, when the younger Lazzaro decided to join the Army under an 18X contract — a general enlistment title for Special Forces.He passed the Special Forces Qualification Course and donned the coveted green beret as a weapons sergeant.

With several qualifications already under his belt, Lazzaro was looking forward to attending Ranger School, the Army’s competitive and highly sought-after leadership school. His father wanted to pin his Ranger tab, continuing a tradition that he himself passed in the military.

The elder Lazzaro recalled that drive in his son from a young age, always attempting to outdo his father in the gym, for example, or as a “tough-as-nails” competitor on the football field, where even in high school he saw success while leading his Colorado team to two state championships.  Military.com

Category: Green Beret, Navy, We Remember, WWII