Three More Accounted For

 

Defense MIA/POW Accounting Agency

USS Oklahoma Sailor Accounted For From World War II

Navy Mess Attendant 2nd Class Archie Callahan, Jr.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Navy Mess Attendant 2nd Class Archie Callahan, Jr., 19, of Newark, New Jersey, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Nov. 27, 2017.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Callahan was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Callahan.

From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries.

In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Callahan.

Between June and November 2015, DPAA personnel exhumed the USS Oklahoma Unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.

To identify Callahan’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), analysis.

Callahan’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Callahan will be buried on May 5, 2023, in Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Pilot Accounted For From Vietnam War

Air Force Colonel Ernest L. De Soto

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Air Force Colonel Ernest L. De Soto, 37, reported missing during the Vietnam War, was accounted for March 23, 2023.

On April 12, 1969, De Soto was the pilot of a F-4D Phantom II assigned to 390th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 336th Tactical Fighter Wing. De Soto, his navigator and another aircraft were returning from a cancelled strike mission near Quang Nam Province, Vietnam when both aircraft ascended into heavy cloud cover. The lead aircraft noticed De Soto’s plane was not in sight and immediately began an aerial search without success. De Soto was posthumously promoted to Colonel while in a missing status.

 

 

Airman Accounted For From Vietnam War

Air Force 1st Lt Frederick M. Hall

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Air Force 1st Lt Frederick M. Hall, 25, killed during the Vietnam War, was accounted for March 23, 2023.

On April 12, 1969, Hall was the navigator on a F-4D Phantom II assigned to 390th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 336th Tactical Fighter Wing. Hall, his pilot and another aircraft were returning from a cancelled strike mission near Quang Nam Province, Vietnam when both aircraft ascended into heavy cloud cover. The lead aircraft noticed Hall’s plane was not in sight and immediately began an aerial search without success.

 

Category: No Longer Missing