George Coburn, a Pearl Harbor survivor who never forgot his harrowing wartime experiences but refused to let them define him, died Wednesday at a board and care home in Murrieta.
He was 103 and had suffered a broken hip earlier in the week, according to his daughter, Marie Coburn.
Raised in San Diego, a product of Hoover High, Coburn spent eight years in the Navy and saw action in some of World War II’s most storied Pacific battles, including Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. He was injured by shrapnel in one Japanese kamikaze attack and awarded a Purple Heart.
Many of the sailors he served with were killed during the war, including more than 400 shipmates on the battleship Oklahoma, which was hit by torpedoes at Pearl Harbor.
After leaving the service, he refused to dwell on what he’d gone through or harbor any animosity toward his former enemies. Instead, when people thanked him for his service, he replied with a quip that drew laughter.
“I did it willingly,” he said, “but I can’t say it was enjoyable and don’t ask me to do it again.”
Coburn was born Oct. 26, 1919, in Mankato, Minn., to Robert, a baker, and Carrie, a homemaker. The family moved to San Diego in 1920 in search of warmer weather after his mother was sickened in the pandemic known as the Spanish Flu.
After high school, Coburn took a job selling cars, but the pay — 25 cents an hour — wasn’t steady. He ed the Navy in 1938 and eventually was assigned to the Oklahoma, helping to run its big guns.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, he was three decks down, preparing to do an inspection. The blast of the first torpedo lifted him off his feet. More torpedoes hit, and as the ship filled with water and began rolling over, he scrambled out, dodging machine-gun bullets from strafing Japanese planes.
Less than two weeks later, he was on another ship, the heavy cruiser Louisville, again in the gunnery division. The ship fought in several Pacific campaigns, including the Aleutian Islands, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines and Okinawa. By war’s end, 52 of his shipmates had been killed, most of them by kamikaze pilots.
He left the service in May 1946 and settled with his wife, Jenny, in San Diego, where he worked as a civilian contractor and electrician for the Navy. They raised raised two children, Charles and Marie.
His wife died in 2005, a few months shy of their 61st anniversary. Son Charles died in 2008.
Although Coburn belonged to the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, he wasn’t active in group activities. “I preferred to move on and go my own way,” he told the Union-Tribune in 2019.
It also bothered him to hear other veterans who had lingering anger about the war. “I talked to guys there who had an acrid hatred for the Japanese,” he told local World War II historian Linda Dudik for a life-story she wrote about him. “I couldn’t understand how they could live with it.”
Coburn spent his last 20 years in North County, primarily in Vista and then at a retirement community in Oceanside, where he enjoyed karaoke, jewelry-making and dancing.
“He always had a twinkle in his eye and an acceptance of everything life threw at him,” his daughter said. “Right up to the end, he maintained his sense of humor and joy at being alive.”
Other survivors include two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Services are pending.
