When Bob Fernandez joined the Navy in August 1941, his innocence was forgivable.
Only 17, he had grown up in San Jose and quit school after eighth grade. Quick with his hands and feet, he followed his older brother on the local boxing circuit and was ready for new opportunities.
Four months later, on Dec. 7, Fernandez came of age.
Reflecting on his enlistment, he once said, “I just thought I was gonna go dancing all the time, have a good time, see the world. What’d I do? I got caught in the war.”
One of the country’s last survivors of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor, Fernandez died Wednesday in Lodi, Calif. He was 100. His death brings the number of Pearl Harbor survivors to a little more than a dozen.
Fernandez had planned to attend the 83th Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day on Saturday, the same day he was profiled in The Times. He would have joined two other Pearl Harbor survivors — ages 102 and 104 — at the annual commemoration in Hawaii.
Until recently, Fernandez had been in good health. He was an avid dancer and a regular at a restaurant and dance hall in Stockton. But late last month, he was hospitalized because of an infection, and his family decided against the trip to Hawaii.
Stationed aboard the USS Curtiss, Fernandez was working in the mess when he heard the first explosion. He had been looking forward to going ashore that evening but soon found himself running to his battle station, passing munitions from the magazine room to the anti-aircraft guns on the deck.
When the attack was over, 21 men aboard the Curtiss had been killed and close to 60 injured. A little more than 2,400 service members were killed that day.
Fernandez stayed with the ship for four more years, serving during the campaigns at Midway, Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands. He retired from the Navy in 1947, returning to the Bay Area, where he worked as a forklift driver, married and had two sons. He and his wife eventually moved to Stockton.
After his wife, Mary, died in 2014, Fernandez continued to live alone. Earlier this year he moved in with his nephew, Joe Guthrie, and his wife, Kimberly Guthrie, who became his main caregivers.
Although many called him a hero for his efforts during the attack, Fernandez downplayed his role.
“I’m not the only guy that was over there,” he said. “There were thousands of guys over there who did a lot of fighting. I just happened to be there at that time. I’m not a hero. I just came out alive.”