The last known Pearl Harbor attack survivor living in Hawaii was laid to rest Thursday alongside his late wife at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe.
Sterling Robert Cale was 102 years old when he died Jan. 10 in his Aiea home, which overlooked Pearl Harbor's battleship row. Even into the last years of his life, Cale regularly volunteered at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial to share his experiences with visitors. He would spend almost every birthday outside the bookstore there, often posing for photos with visitors and letting out his catch phrase “Ready, aim, fire !” as the camera clicked.
“It didn't matter how many times I've heard that, I smiled just as much as the people who heard it the first time—it was always fun, ” recalled C.R. Drumhellier, commander of American Legion Post 17. “He was animated around the cake, giving fist bumps, and the kids loved it. Moms and dads obviously loved it, too.”
During a eulogy, his grandson Sterling Robert Cale Jr. said he was “always humble, kind and patient. He never complained, even when he was in pain. I would always ask him how he was feeling today, and his answer to me was always the same : ‘I feel with my hands. How do you feel ?'”
But though he was known for his sense of humor, he also carried with him painful memories of war.
Cale was raised in rural Illinois by adoptive parents, but many of the defining moments in his life happened in Hawaii—a duty station he had…
