When Japan mounted the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii, Tipsword's ship, the battleship USS West Virginia, was hit by torpedoes and bombs and sank. The explosions rendered many of the victins impossible to identify.
They were buried in mass graves and labeled as "unknown" in a cemetery located in a volcano crater known as the Punchbowl in the island of Oahu.
In 2015, the federal government began matching the remains to DNA from family members of service members who were missing or killed in action but unidentified. The program has identified hundreds of missing service members from around the world who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
--GreGen
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