Remains of USS Oklahoma Sailor William Blanchard Identified

From the April 3, 2021, Magic Valley (Idaho) "Idaho View:  Nearly 80 years after Pearl Harbor,  a sailor's remains are going home to North Carolina" by Scott McIntosh, Idaho Statesman.

The obituary of William Eugene Blanchard that ran in the  Sunday Idaho Statesman was standard.  It noted his military service as a Boilermaker 1st Class in the U.S. Navy, the medals he earned, survivors, services and where to send donations.

But one thing really different was the date of his death, and that was some 80 years earlier on December 7, 1941.

Boilermaker William Eugene Blanchard from Tignall, Georgia, was only 24 years old when he died.  It wasn't until January 2021 that his remains were identified by DNA testing done by  the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, a part of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Since the 1950s, the remains of 394 unidentified sailors and Marines had been buried as unknowns at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

But starting in 2015, they were disinterred and DNA testing done.

--GreGen