Chief Petty Officer Duff Gordon comes home after 75 years

52-year-old Chief Petty Officer Duff Gordon was on the USS OKLAHOMA on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed the naval base and the ship sank in the attack. For 75 years, he laid in an unmarked grave in Hawai’i until the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency took advantage of new forensic techniques that facilitated the identification of his remains. After 75 years, CPO Gordon made it home yesterday to some fanfare in Minneapolis;

Over 400 men died on the ship that day, but only 35 were identified immediately. It took seven decades of DNA technique improvements before other shipmates and Gordon could be identified and sent home.

“I think it is very important that we do honor those that we are able to identify like Chief Duff Gordon here and give him a proper homecoming,” said Rear Admiral Thomas Luscher, the Deputy Chief of the U.S. Naval Reserve.

Thanks to OC for the tip.

Category: We Remember