The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced this week that two sailors killed during World War II were accounted for.
Navy Fireman 1st Class William D. Tucker, 19, of Bedford, Iowa, was accounted for on Dec. 3, 2020 and Navy Musician 2nd Class Charlton H. Ferguson, 19, of Kosciusko, Mississippi, was accounted for on Dec. 17, 2020.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Tucker and Ferguson were 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 Tucker and Ferguson.
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.
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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.
Between June and November 2015, DPAA personnel exhumed the USS Oklahoma Unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.
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To identify Tucker's and Ferguson's remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used Y chromosome (Y-STR) analysis.
Tucker's and Ferguson's names are recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to their name to indicate they have been accounted for.
Ferguson will be buried on July 9, 2021, at the NMCP.
Tucker will be buried on June 30, 2021, in his hometown.
DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of the Navy for their partnership in this mission.
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