Oak Harbor loses a Pearl Harbor survivor

Glenn Lane in 1942. Photo courtesy of ussarizona.com.

Just three days after we honored the men and women who fought at Pearl Harbor 70 years ago, the Oak Harbor community must say goodbye to one of them.

Glenn Lane, a 55-year resident of Oak Harbor, passed away Saturday, Dec. 10, at Skagit Valley Hospital. He was 93 years old.

The Pearl Harbor survivor proudly shared his account of the infamous attack with the Oak Harbor community at many different venues.

Famously, he may have been the only person to be on two battleships taken out by the enemy on the same day.

“He died in his sleep, which is what he always said he wanted,” his daughter Patricia Anderson said.

A memorial service to honor Lane will be held at Wallin Funeral Home on Monday, Dec. 19, at 1 p.m.

Lane survived both the USS Arizona and the USS Nevada. He was a radioman on the USS Arizona and saw Japanese torpedo bombers attacking ships docked at Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. Lane was blown off the battleship while fighting fires and swam through the burning harbor to the USS Nevada, another doomed ship. It was hit by bombs and a torpedo, forcing the ship aground.

After Pearl Harbor, Lane served as a member of combat aircrews, mainly in Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers. His military career spanned 30 years and three wars. He finally retired as Whidbey Island Naval Air Station’s first command master chief.

Anderson said she’s been working to ensure the memorial service is done with full military honors. Lane’s ashes will be interred in the USS Arizona under the waves of Pearl Harbor.

“Divers will take him down and place his ashes in the gun turrets of the ship,” Anderson said.

Lane was born Jan. 29, 1918 in Iowa. He and his first wife, Beverly, moved to Oak Harbor in 1960 and raised six children. Beverly, his biggest booster, passed away in 2007. He remarried last year and had been living with his new wife, Abbe, in Sedro-Woolley.