DPAA identifies 100 remains from USS Oklahoma

Stars & Stripes reports that the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has identified 100 sailors and Marines who were lost on the USS Oklahoma when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor Hawai’i on December 6, 1941.

429 crew members were killed on the ship when it was struck by at least five torpedoes fired from Japanese aircraft. Some were killed by the strafing the battleship suffered while it rolling over. Some of the crew escaped to the USS Maryland by clamoring over the moorings.

Only 35 of the crewmen’s remains have been returned home since the battle.

Two years ago, DPAA disinterred the remains of 400 folks.

Officials exhumed the bodies after determining that advances in forensic science and genealogical help from families could make identifications possible. The buried Marines and sailors have been classified as missing since World War II.

The agency has said it expects to identify about 80 percent of the battleship’s missing crew members by 2020.

The most recent identification came last week, the agency said in a news release. The family hasn’t been notified yet, however, so his name hasn’t been released.

Category: We Remember