JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii –
A total of 83 years has passed since the day that brought the United States into the Second World War, a day which President Franklin Roosevelt described to the nation as “a date which will live in infamy,” the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Three generations have passed since the Dec. 7, 1941 attack, with approximately 100,000 American Veterans of the Second World War remaining. Less than two dozen of them are survivors of Pearl Harbor.
While active hostilities have long since concluded, there remains a final battle of World War II still being fought: a battle against time, fought not with bullets, bombs, ships or planes, but with science and technology. A battle to find those missing servicemen from one of the United States’ deadliest conflicts, to include those lost and unaccounted for on Dec. 7, 1941. This is the mandate of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to provide the fullest possible accounting for missing personnel to their families and the nation.
“Three generations on from World War II, we find ourselves racing against time to return these unknowns to their loved ones. With very few direct living relatives remaining, the passage of time makes the task of locating family reference samples for analysis that much more difficult. The war is long over – but the mission goes on,” said Dr. Laurel Freas, forensic anthropologist and the lead for the Pearl Harbor Project.
The mission of the DPAA is the result of military families during the Vietnam conflict, demanding an accounting of their loved ones held as prisoners of war or missing in action. As support for the mission and resources grew over the years, the United States Government expanded the mandate to cover all American conflicts from World War II to Desert Storm.
Some of the DPAA’s important identification efforts are from two of the ships struck that day, the USS Oklahoma and the USS West Virginia.
Launched in the year 1914, the USS Oklahoma was moored at Pearl Harbor as part of the Pacific Fleet on Dec. 7, 1941. As the attack began, the Oklahoma was immediately set upon by enemy fighters, being struck by three plane-launched torpedoes. The ship rapidly flooded and capsized, killing 429 officers and enlisted personnel, many of whom were trapped in the hull and drowned. The remains recovered in the days following the incident and during the salvaging of the ship in 1943 would be buried as unknowns on Oahu.
The Army led a concerted effort to identify these men from 1947-1949, but the commingled nature of the remains and technological limitations of the day rendered this incredibly difficult and only 35 service members were identified; while 394 Oklahoma sailors and Marines remained unaccounted for.
Following these post-war identification efforts, 389 of Oklahoma unknowns, who were interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, were able to be identified, made possible by the advances in forensic sciences, including forensic anthropology, forensic odontology, and DNA.
“The Oklahoma Project officially began in 2015 when all the disinterments took place and ended with the reinterment of group and unidentified remains on [Dec. 7, 2021],” said Ms. Carrie LeGarde, USS Oklahoma Project leader.
Prior to the 2015 disinterments, family reference samples of DNA, obtained by a simple saliva swab, were gathered and sent to the Armed Forces Medical Examiner Systems DNA Laboratory for processing. These samples were then compared to samples collected from the remains of the Oklahoma’s crew which had been disinterred from the NMCP. Out of the 394 unaccounted-for service members following post-war identification efforts, a total of 362 were positively identified, including all 14 Marines assigned to the ship, according to LeGarde.
The remaining 32 service members could not be positively identified, due to insufficient biological or dental data or a lack of family reference samples, and were identified as a group, represented by the ceremony and reinterment with honors of the unidentified remains.
As families of the identified continue to receive notifications, the funerals continue. Some families choose to have their servicemember returned to the mainland United States, while others request they be returned to the Hawaiian soil in which they had rested for so long. The most recent interment of a sailor from the USS Oklahoma was of Fireman First Class Edward Johnson, on Oct. 25, 2024, in Honolulu. The next will be of Seaman Second Class John Auld, scheduled for burial on Dec. 6, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Additionally, a monument to those lost aboard the USS Oklahoma stands at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor.
The USS West Virginia was launched in 1921 and found itself on Battleship Row during the December 7th attack. The ship would be struck by a total of seven torpedoes and a pair of sixteen-inch armor piercing bombs dropped from the sky. The explosions and fuel leaking from the nearby destroyed USS Arizona quickly caused the USS West Virginia to become consumed by a raging inferno. The ship then slowly sank beneath the fiery waves. A total of 106 men had been killed. Salvaged in 1942, the ship would later return to service and participate in further campaigns. A total of 25 men could not be accounted for, and like those aboard the Oklahoma, they were interred as unknowns.
The USS West Virginia Project began in the summer of 2017 and ran until its sunset date in 2024, according to Freas.
In those years, 20 of the 25 sailors were identified using forensic anthropology, forensic odontology, and DNA analysis. Additionally, DPAA has also identified six unknowns from another ship sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS California. The most recent sailor laid to rest from the USS West Virginia was Fireman Second Class William Kubinec, held on Nov. 13 2024 in Igo, California.
As the generation that served and lived through WWII continues to pass away, estimated at a rate of more than 130 each day, the historic events that once shook the nation and the world fade from the national consciousness with each year; the work of DPAA continues, to ensure every effort is made to return as many of those Americans home to their families as possible. And, to ensure those service members are afforded the respect and dignity they earned in service to their Nation and its principles.
To accomplish this, DPAA operates out of two laboratories in Hawaii and Nebraska, a headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, and four detachments, one in Europe and three in Southeast Asia, with a combined workforce of approximately 700 personnel, comprised of soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, Department of Defense civilians and contractors across the science and technology spectrum. DPAA conducts missions in 46 countries and regularly pursues partnerships in both the academic community and civic organizations to enhance its capabilities.