We are sad to share that one of the last survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Rolland Briar of Green Bay Wisconsin, has passed away at the age of 104.

Born and raised in Wisconsin, Rolland enlisted in the US Navy in February 1941. On December 7, he was on the deck of the destroyer tender USS Whitney AD-4, waiting for a motor launch to take him to Ford Island for church services.

“Because I was with flag allowance, we had no battle stations,” he later recalled. “Due to the strafing by the Japanese planes, we were ordered to go below deck as some were killed on deck. We had five destroyers tied next to us and would have been a prize target.”

From below deck, he and the others could hear explosions and smell smoke as the attack continued. Afterward, he helped reassign survivors to other ships.

Rolland continued to serve aboard the Whitney before transferring to the USS Markab, and later to Magazine Island at Pearl Harbor. He was eventually sent to school, became an officer, and returned to the Pacific, serving at the Naval Air Station at Saipan until July 1946.

Image 1 and 2: Images of Rolland Briar, visiting Pearl Harbor and as a young man, provided by Rolland’s family.

Image 3: USS Whitney (The large ship on the left) photographed from the shore during the attack.