Some More On the Palmer Boys Lost on the USS Oklahoma-- Part 3

Calvin, Wilfred, Doris, Florence and Joyce were all children of Harry and Rosie Palmer.  The two boys and Doris were all born in Minot, North Dakota and the two other sisters might have been.  The Palmer family moved from Minot to San Francisco where Calvin and Wilfred joined the Navy.

According to the DPAA, the Palmer brothers were among the 429 killed on the Oklahoma that day.  Remains were recovered from December 1941 to June 1944 and most were unidentifiable due to length of time.    They were interred in two cemeteries:  Halawa and Nu'uanu.

In September 1947,  members of the American Graves  Registration Service disinterred the graves in the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks where they were able to identify 35 of them.  The remainder were  were buried in 46 plots at the National Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl.

Between June and November 2015, the DPAA exhumed the 46 plots and used DNA analysis on the remains.

Helene Jensen aid that her aunt had provided DNA before her death and that is what provided the positive identification.

--GreGen