Chavez recently traveled to D.C. in May, where he was honored by President Donald Trump on Memorial Day.
The White House tweeted about his death.
We are saddened to hear the oldest living Pearl Harbor veteran, Ray Chavez, has passed away at the age of 106. We were honored to host him at the White House earlier this year. Thank you for your service to our great Nation, Ray! pic.twitter.com/CA7Xdcxz89
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 22, 2018
Chavez was aboard the minesweeper USS Condor just hours before the Pearl Harbor attack. The crew spotted the periscope of a Japanese midget submarine. Depth charges were dropped to sink the submarine, and a few hours passed uneventfully.
He told the Union-Tribune he was asleep when the Japanese bombing raid started around 8 a.m. “My wife ran in and said, ‘We’re being attacked’ and I said, ‘Who’s going to attack us? Nobody,’” Chavez told the Union-Tribune. “She said that the whole harbor was on fire and when I got outside I saw that everything was black from all the burning oil.”
"Ray Chavez was a very active member for years (of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association) and I admired the man," Stu Hedley, 97, a retired Navy chief petty officer who served on the USS West Virginia at the time of the attack, told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
He joined the Navy in 1938.
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