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PHOTO BY CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / CRUSSELL@STARADVERTISER.COM
Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Langdell, the oldest Pearl Harbor survivor at the age of 97, paid his respects to Jo Ann Olsen whose husband, Vernon Olsen was interned at the USS Arizona Memorial on Wednesday afternoon. Also pictured was Olsen's niece Helen Kostidakis, her husband Perry and Langdell's son John Langdell.
YUBA CITY, Calif. >> The oldest living crew member of the USS Arizona to have survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has died in Northern California at the age of 100.
Retired Navy Lt. Commander Joseph Langdell died last Wednesday at a nursing home in Yuba City, California, according to his son, Ted Langdell. The USS Arizona Reunion Association said that as far as it knew Langdell was the last surviving officer from the naval battleship that lost 1,177 men when it was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941.
He was an ensign on an assignment that had him off the ship and on a nearby military base the morning Pearl Harbor was attacked. His son says Langdell spent the following days removing remains of the dead from the partially sunken ship.
The reunion association says there are now eight remaining survivors.
