Illinois Veterans' Remains Finally Come Home from Pearl Harbor-- Part 1: Keith Tipsword

From the December 7, 2022, Chicago Tribune by Robert McCoppin.

In a cemetery amidst the cornfields of downstate Illinois last month, a military honor guard fired shots in salute before the remains of World War II veteran Keith Tipsword were lowered into the ground.

Tipsword, a machinist's mate, was 22 when he died on the battleship USS West Virginia in the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.  In the wake of the attack, his body was never identified, and he was listed as m missing in action, until the Navy recently identified his remains through DNA.

His sister, who was 5 years old when he died, and is now 86, vaguely remembers a man in uniform who visited their home in tiny Moccasin, Illinois, her son Greg Sapp said.

"My mom said that her mother always had an expectation the door would open  and Keith would be there," Sapp said.  "She never thought he wouldn't come home. "  Well, he finally has."

With his burial in November, Tipsword is among dozens of Pearl Harbor veterans who have been identified and brought home to be reburied with loved ones.  Through new DNA techniques, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has been able to sort through remains that were long considered to be unidentifiable.

--GreGen