Remains of Oklahoma sailor killed during Pearl Harbor attack return home

[RugersGR8]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.koco.com/amp/article/remains-of-oklahoma-sailor-killed-during-pearl-harbor-attack-return-home/34100590
Remains of Oklahoma sailor killed during Pearl Harbor attack return home
Updated: 11:04 PM CDT Sep 21, 2020

 

[dennishoddy]

Its a shame this wasn't on the news more. I'm sure more would have attended and been on the roadside.

 

[bobfuente]

Rest easy, Sailor. You’re home now.

 

[Fyrtwuck]

I’ve seen several news articles and I’m glad he’s been brought home. I must say I’m curious. They said he was on the Oklahoma on December 7th when it was attacked. . Where has he been all this time and why did it take so long to identify him?

 

[SMS]

I’ve seen several news articles and I’m glad he’s been brought home. I must say I’m curious. They said he was on the Oklahoma on December 7th when it was attacked. . Where has he been all this time and why did it take so long to identify him?

The military has a lot of unidentified remains in storage/burial. Sometimes they’re mixed with other remains or the sample is too small etc...every once and awhile technologically advances just enough to allow previously unidentifiable samples to be identified.

 

[Mad Professor]

I’ve seen several news articles and I’m glad he’s been brought home. I must say I’m curious. They said he was on the Oklahoma on December 7th when it was attacked. . Where has he been all this time and why did it take so long to identify him?

Technology more than anything led to delays. There were attempts in the 40s to make identification. Here is another article.


https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/N...ailor-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-webb-j/


WASHINGTON —
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Navy Fireman 1st Class James C. Webb, 23, of Hobart, Arkansas, killed during World War II, was accounted for on July 29, 2019.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Webb 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 Webb.

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 Webb.

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

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

DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of the Navy for their partnership in this mission.

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

The date and location for Webb’s funeral have yet to be determined.

 

[TerryMiller]

Fair winds and following seas, James.

RIP and God bless you for your service.

 

[O4L]

The video here has some of the graveside service and an interview of his nephew.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/kfor.c...at-pearl-harbor-laid-to-rest-in-oklahoma/amp/

I know someone that was involved in the procession from the funeral home in Tecumseh to the cemetery in Dale and he said there were probably two miles of vehicles in the procession.

 

[bobfuente]

How do they go about the DNA angle? Back in “41 they didn’t collect it. Do they try to match existing DNA from remains to suspected family members?

 

[TerryMiller]

How do they go about the DNA angle? Back in “41 they didn’t collect it. Do they try to match existing DNA from remains to suspected family members?

That would be my guess. There is a lot of that done if I remember right. Family members DNA is close enough to "match" a victim to a family, and if there aren't that many MIA's from the family, it would indicate their remains to be from that family.