Stamford's last known Pearl Harbor veteran dies at 92

Elwood Lichack fought from deck of USS Pennsylvania

By Kate King

STAMFORD — The city’s last known survivor of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II died Friday morning after a battle with bone marrow cancer. He was 92.

A patriotic American who served for 20 years in the U.S. Navy, Elwood Lichack was an active member of the veteran community in Stamford. The son of John and Anna Laychak, who immigrated to the United States from the Austrian Empire in 1898, Lichack grew up in Greenwich and moved to Stamford in 1950. (The spelling of his last name was changed by the military when he enlisted.)

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Lichack was ready to be relieved from watch duty aboard the USS Pennsylvania when 300 Japanese fighter planes attacked Pearl Harbor.

The planes flew so close to the ships that Lichack could see the pilots’ eyes, said his son, Elwood Lichack Jr.

In the ensuing battle, Lichack saw the gunners who were fighting alongside him blown away by a Japanese bomb. They were three of the 20 casualties suffered on his ship, which was moored at the dry dock for repairs rather than at its usual spot in the middle of the harbor. That position was occupied by the USS Arizona, which suffered tremendous casualties and sank under Japanese fire.

"Being at Pearl Harbor, that was a horrific experience for him," Lichack Jr. said. "After the Japanese left, he stayed at his gun for about two weeks. They ate and slept there, fearful that the Japanese would return".

A bullet grazed Lichack’s ear in the battle, but he never requested a Purple Heart. He considered the dangers of war part of his job description, Lichack Jr. said. Later in his military career, Lichack was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation Medal for the Marshall Island Operation, the Bismark Archipelago Operation and the Western New Guinea Operation.

"Those medals were important to him, but what was most important to him was to do the right thing, to do the right thing so all of us today can have this freedom," his son said. "He always said that it’s not the president of the United States who gives us the freedom, it’s the military. It’s these young boys who go out and fight."

Lichack continued to serve in the Navy, including at Okinawa, until 1956, when he retired as lieutenant commander. He turned down government jobs to serve food and drinks at Manero’s Restaurant in Greenwich, a steakhouse where he worked as a waiter for 26 years. When not on the job, Lichack enjoyed tending to his large garden, spending time with family and helping his neighbors.

"On this street, when he was good and he was well and he was active, he would go and snowplow everyone’s sidewalk and driveway," Lichack Jr. said. "And he did his snow last."

Even in retirement, Lichack remained active in the veteran community.

"He came into the school a few times and met the students, and they were very much in awe of meeting someone who was actually at Pearl Harbor," said Tony Pavia, principal at New Canaan High School, who interviewed Lichack for his 1995 book, "An American Town Goes To War."

Lichack, who was "for all intents and purposes the last known survivor" of Pearl Harbor in the area, participated in December’s memorial ceremony at Veterans Park in downtown Stamford, Pavia said.

"This past year it was just very sad to see he was the last one there," Pavia said. "This is really the passing of an era. He will be missed, because he not only had this wonderful personality, and he was not only a gentleman, but he also really represented to many of us the greatest of the American soldiers in the Second World War."

Jimmy Nestor of Stamford knew Lichack through the veteran community and will serve as an honorary pallbearer at his funeral Monday morning. Nestor, a senior past commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9617, said the group will dedicate next year’s Pearl Harbor ceremony to Lichack.

"He was one of the greatest guys we ever met," Nestor said. "Everybody loved him."

Lichack is survived by his wife of 68 years, Anna Evanko Lichack; a daughter, Ellen Scaccia of New Milford; two sons, Elwood Lichack of North Haledon, N.J., and John Lichack of Clinton; and a brother-in-law, nephew, five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Benedict-Our Lady of Montserrat Church, 1 St. Benedict Circle, Stamford, at 11 a.m. Monday. He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery at a future date.