For Pearl Harbor Unknowns, A Final Rest-- Part 1: Below Deck On the USS Oklahoma

From the December 7, 2016, Chicago Tribune  Ted Gregory.

A total of 64 of those nearly 400 sailors and Marines who died on the USS Oklahoma and buried as unknowns have been identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

One of the remaining unidentified  is Michael Galajdik, Navy Fireman 1st Class from Joliet, Illinois.  He enlisted in April 1940 and was one of three brothers who served during World War II.

Death below deck on the USS Oklahoma was particularly nightmarish.  Althougjh about 32 men were rescued by cutting through the hull, many suffocated after those efforts had to be abandoned for fear that the work would ignite explosive fires from oil and gas in and around the ship.

The vast majority of bodies were recovered from July 15, 1941, to May 10, 1944.  The bodies had by then decomposed extensively and were unidentifiable.

This Effort to Identify the Ramains Is Very Commendable.  --GreGen