Freddie Jones comes home

According to his father, Freddie Jones lied about his age when he enlisted in the Navy in 1929, but he was thirty years old when he went down with the crew of the USS Oklahoma on December 7th, 1941 – that day that will live in infamy. When his earthly remains were recovered two years later, they were deposited in an unmarked grave in Hawaii, until they were identified. From the Detroit News;

Jones and the other unknown servicemen were reburied in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, nicknamed the Punchbowl because of its location in the crater of an extinct volcano in Honolulu.

After decades of lobbying by veterans groups, the Pentagon began another attempt to identify the remains in 2015. Among the 61 caskets it exhumed was one that held the remains of 100 servicemen.

Forensic anthropologist reassembled the skeletons and extracted DNA from the skulls and teeth. They used genealogical records to find descendants of the servicemen, and matched DNA samples from the relatives to the servicemen’s.

Sixty-three of the unknown sailors and Marines have been identified, according to Pentagon records. The process is expected to take three years.

Jones came home Saturday to Port Huron, Michigan. From USAToday;

Helen Kellie Cosner is Jones’ granddaughter. She came from Seattle — where Jones’ descendants live — to be in Port Huron for the service.

“I’m so happy,” she said. “It’s overwhelming, the support and the fact that he’s home.

“I don’t have words to say.”

She received an American flag that had draped Jones’ simple coffin. The flag, she said, would go in a special place.

Sue Nichols of Burton also received a flag that she held clutched to her chest. Jones is her great-uncle.

“It’s overwhelming,” she said. “It’s amazing. I’m so blessed because all these people showed up.”

She said she felt sad at her great-uncle’s death, but also joyous that his body had been returned to Port Huron.

Thanks to Jill for the link.

Category: We Remember