Jessie Alton Mahaffey, a long-time Sabine Parish resident who was one of the last remaining survivors of the USS Oklahoma’s sinking during the attack on Pearl Harbor, died at the age of 102 on March 1.
“He was a great guy and was so humble every time we talked to him,” said Rickey Robertson, local historian and military enthusiast. “We’re slowly seeing the passing of the Greatest Generation and those service men and women who served and fought during World War II.”
Mahaffey was born on November 23, 1922 in Florien, according to his obituary. After graduating high school, he joined the Navy in the summer of 1941, which was before the United States officially entered World War II. Upon completion of boot camp in San Diego, he was assigned to the Oklahoma, which was moored on “Battleship Row” at Pearl harbor, alongside several other massive U.S. battleships.
On the morning of the tragic sneak attack by Japan, he and five other sailors were scrubbing the battleship’s wooden deck using holystones attached to broomsticks.
“It was a quiet Sunday, and we had the day off except for the yearly admiral inspection,” he told KTBS in Shreveport during an interview. “Then we heard a siren, saw planes and smoke. It must have only gone on for 45 minutes, but it was crazy.”
Japanese Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers had slammed the Oklahoma with torpedoes, causing the long-serving battleship, which displaced 35,000 tons fully loaded and was nearly 600 feet long with a 95-foot beam, to capsize. A total of 429 men died during the attack.
“It turned upside down and we had to slide over the bottom of the ship into the water,” Ma-