Like many military veterans, Ray Chavez makes a point to regularly hit the gym to stay healthy and fit. The main difference is that this Pearl Harbor vet just turned 104, and he shows no sign of slowing down.

Chavez is the oldest surviving veteran to have witnessed the Attack on Pearl Harbor firsthand. Born in 1911 in San Bernardino, California, Chavez joined the Navy at age 27 and moved to Hawaii with his wife Margaret. It was she who woke him up on the fateful morning of Dec. 7, 1941 when the Japanese launched their ambush on the harbor.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

“My wife ran in and said, ‘We’re being attacked’ and I said, ‘Who’s going to attack us? Nobody.’ 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.”

Chavez said he threw on his work clothes and was running the quarter-mile back to the base when a friend in a passing car picked him up and sped them both to the harbor. He spent the next nine days on continuous duty and didn’t know for 10 days whether his wife and daughter had survived the attack.

In his long life, Chavez has been through a lot. He survived the World War II with only psychological wounds, endured the tragic deaths of his two children, adopted another child and ran his own landscaping business until he retired at age 96.

Now the Pearl Harbor vet visits local high schools and veteran events to pass on his story to the new generation. In his spare time, Chavez visits the gym three times a week to meet with a personal trainer. He hopes to be healthy enough to fly to Hawaii on the 75th anniversary of the battle this December.

(Photo Credit: Hayne Palmour IV | San Diego Union-Tribune)