USS Oklahoma casualties to be exhumed, ID'd

On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Japanese hoped to destroy U.S. aircraft carriers normally moored in the harbor, but the carriers were at sea and the attacking pilots shifted their targeting to the battleships, which were unable to get enough steam up to escape.

The battleships USS Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Maryland, California and West Virginia were moored, and the Pennsylvania was in dry dock at Pearl Harbor. Of these the Arizona, California, Oklahoma and West Virginia were sunk while all the others were damaged.

The Oklahoma was hit by several bombs and torpedoes and capsized in minutes. The casualties included 429 sailors and Marines killed in the attack. After retrieving some remains from the ship, 330 sets of remains were still unidentified and were later commingled in a common grave at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl, Hawaii.

Last year the Department of Defense said it would not exhume the remains and use DNA and other testing to identify all it could. That decision was reversed on April 14, 2015, by a memorandum from Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work, the Oklahoma remains will be exhumed and tested for identification. For exhumations to occur, there must be at least a 50 percent chance of identification. Family members who can be located may opt to have those identified remains returned or to have them reinterred in a marked grave at the Punchbowl. This will be a long slow process, and Work's directive states that the identifications should be made within five years if possible.

The directive extends to all other sites where unidentified military remains are interred. One exception to this are remains in sunken Navy vessels such as the USS Arizona. Those vessels are considered official internment sites, and the remains in them will be left undisturbed.

It is fitting that this decision was made shortly before Memorial Day. The survivors of those who have died in military service are seeing that the service and sacrifices of their loved ones are remembered and honored by this nation. They are not forgotten.