(WBBM NEWSRADIO) - After more than eighty years, a Chicagoan who was killed in the 1941 attack at Pearl Harbor, will finally be laid to rest properly.
Sandra Hannan of southwest suburban Burr Ridge said, thanks to DNA, the Navy has identified the remains of her uncle, Michael Malek. He died aboard the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Malek was just 17-years-old when he was killed. He would have turned 100 this year.
“We just did not have his remains to bury…They’ve been able to exhume those…They (U.S. Navy) had the remains for many years, but there’s no way to identify them for burial, Hannan said. “Now that we have the DNA technology, they were able to identify it.”
He will be buried in Hawaii with full military honors on June 6.
“We are just very impressed with the care that the Navy has given to the men and women who served and who are lost, and lost so long ago that they’re still going through the full military honors. I think that’s pretty incredible,” Hannan said.
Hannan's father enlisted in the military after his brother was killed at Pearl Harbor.
“We will be there for the ceremony, and it will be myself, my husband and Michael’s namesake, my son Michael,” said Hannan.
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