The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced six sailors killed during World War II had been accounted for.
The sailors were assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 sailors and Marines.
The DPAA announced: Navy Fireman 1st Class Paul E. Saylor, 21, of Johnson City, Tennessee; Navy Fireman 2nd Class William K. Shafer, 20, of California; Navy Fireman 1st Class Robert J. Harr, 25, of Illinois; Navy Fireman 2nd Class Carl M. Bradley, 19, of Shelley, Idaho; Navy Electrician’s Mate 2nd Class Leaman R. Dill, 25, of South Dakota; and Navy Fireman 1st Class Everett C. Titterington, 21, of Iowa, killed at Pearl Harbor had been accounted for.
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.
To identify the sailors's remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.
Bradley's and Saylor'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 names to indicate they have been accounted for.
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Bradley will be buried on June 26, 2021, in his hometown.
Saylor will be buried on Aug. 20, 2021, in his hometown