Ken Hartle was a navy diver during the Second World War and had the grim task of retrieving bodies from ships sunk by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor. Hartle died Tuesday afternoon at an Escondido, Calif., centre for people with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Friday. Hartle may have been the oldest surviving Pearl Harbor salvage diver, said David Ball of San Diego, an officer with the Navy Divers Association. Japan’s Dec. 7, 1941 surprise attack on Pearl Harbor sank or beached 18 ships. But he avoided mentioning one task: recovering the long-submerged bodies of sailors who went to the bottom at Pearl Harbor.

Source: thestar January 28, 2017 23:13 UTC