Body of Syracuse Pearl Harbor USS Oklahoma Sailor Comes Home

From the June 6, 2016, Syracuse.com (New York)  "Body of Syracuse sailor killed at Pearl Harbor ID's; he's coming home for burial" by Elizabeth Doran.

Alfred Wells died on the USS Oklahoma on December 7, 1941, at age 312, leaving behind a wife and two daughters.  He was one of the older sailors on the USS Oklahoma to lose his life.  his remains will arrive in Syracuse on Friday and burial will be on Saturday.  He was one of the Oklahoma's unknowns buried at the Punch Bowl in Hawaii all these years.

One of his two surviving sisters, Mary Lou Schmeltzer, 89, said, "My brother is finally coming home."

Alfred Wells was a Machinists Mate 1st Class and an Eastwood native.  He will be buried at Onondaga County Veterans Cemetery on Onondaga Hill.

After serving in the Navy for many years, he was discharged in March 1941 to get married and built a house in Long Beach, California where he had two daughters.  Unable to find a job in the Great Depression, he went back into the Navy in August 1941 and was assigned to the USS Oklahoma.

--GreGen