WW II Sergeant Laid to Rest 80 Years After His Death: Harold Hammett

From Feb. 20,2024, WECT News (WDAM News Hattiesburg, Ms.) by Jay Harrison and Andrew McMunn.

Sergeant Harold Hammett, USMC, left Hattiesburg for San Francisco in 1940 and later enlisted in the Marine Corps.  Thousands like him were sent to fight in the South Pacific.  In 1943, as a member of the 2nd Marine Division, he landed on the Japanese-held island of Betio

The ensuing fight, called the Battle of Tarawa claimed thousands of lives, including that of Hammett who was just 24 years old at the time and was one of the first killed.  His family was notified a month later.

His remains were declared non-recoverable until they were found recently in  Hawaii's National Cemetery  of the Pacific, known as the "Punchbowl."

Using DNA, his family was found. This past week, he was reinterred at Roseland Park Cemetery in Hattiesburg.

I am so glad our government makes this identification effort.  --GreGen

Kansas Man Killed in Germany in World War II Identified

From the March 18, 2023, AP News.

The remains of U.S. Army Sgt. Gregory V. Knoll, 22, of Hill City, Kansas,  were idenntified in january by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

He was assigned to Company M, 3rd Battalion,  112th Infantry regiment, 28th Infantry Division during the war.  In November 1944, his battalion was overrun by German forces as they tried to capture Schmidt, Germany, in Hurtgen Forest.

Surviviors of the attack withdrew to Kommerscheidt, where Knoll was reported killed in action on November 7, 1944.

The American Graves  Registration Command conducted several investigations  in the Hurtgen area between 1946 and 1950, but were unable to find his remains.  

His remains had been found, but unidentified and buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium  in 1949.  They were disinterred in 2021 and sent to the DPAA  laboratory  at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, where scientists used DNA and other analysis to identify his remains.

He will be buried on July 7 in Garden City.

I am so glad that the United States makes this effort to find our missing military people.

--GreGen

DNA Helps Family Bury Pearl Harbor Relative 82 Years Later: Maurice Spangler

From the January 3, 2023,  Fox 31, Colorado's Own by Jeremy Hubbard.

Navy Seaman 1st Class Maurice Spangler was born and raised in Defiance, Ohio, and was just 19 when he died aboard the USS Oklahoma on the morning of December 7, 1941.

A total of 429 crew members died that day, but only 35 were identified when the ship was finally uprighted after being sunk for two years.

In April 2015, the Pentagon ordered Project Oklahoma.  As one of Maurice's few living relatives, Jerry Spangler gave DNA samples to help with his uncle's identification.

Maurice Spangler will be laid to rest again at the Punch Bowl in Oahu  on January 4.

--GreGen

Remains of Illinois Airman Identified

From the January 7, 2023, ABC Eyewitness News (Chicago)  "Remains of World War II airman from Illinois finally identified thanks to new technology."

The remains of a WW II airman have finally been accounted for.

Harold Kretzer, a 32-year-old Odin man in downstate Marion County, was a U.S. Army  Air Forces  tech.

In the summer of 1943,  he was on board a bomber that was hit by enemy fire and crashed in Romania.  He was buried there as an unknown hero,  but new technology has allowed his remains to be identified.  

He will be reburied in Springfield, Illinois.

--GreGen

The USS Oklahoma-- Part 1

From the December 27, 2022, Times-Gazette "Story of the USS Oklahoma  and her lost servicemen."

On December 7, 1941, the USS Oklahoma was sunk during a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor entombing hundreds of servicemen.  In 2015, Project Oklahoma began in an effort  to identify 388 men whose remains were unaccounted for. Since then, 355 have been accounted for by the Defense MIA/POW Accounting Agency.

One of those men, Seaman 1st Class Maurice Spangler, born and raised in Defiance, Ohio, will be reburied  in the National Cemetery of the Pacific, or "Punchbowl" on Hawaii on January 4, 2023.

On December7, 2021,  in a ceremony at that cemetery, the remains of the 33 men who could not be identified by DNA were laid to rest with full military honors.  In attendance were the families of both unidentified and identified sailors and Marines.

--GreGen

Keith Tipsword Comes Home-- Part 2: On the USS West Virginia

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

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

Another Unknown USS Oklahoma Sailor Accounted For

From the December 21, 2022,  WTRF (West Virginia)  "West Virginia sailor  in World War II on USS Oklahoma accounted for."

The Defense Department POW/MIA  Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Navy Fire Controlman 2nd Class  Donald R. McCloud, 21, of Monaville, West Virginia, killed during WW II, was accounted for on September 23, 2022.

On December 7, 1941, McCloud was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, moored in Pearl Harbor when the attack came.  The ship sustained multiple torpedo hits which caused her to quickly capsize.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Don McCloud who was listed originally as MIA, but later declared dead.  His remains were found, but could not be identified  until recently.

To identify his remains, dental records and anthropological evidence were used.  Additionally there was DNA analysis.

He will be buried June 24, 2023, in Dingess, West Virginia.

--GreGen

81st Anniversary of Pearl Harbor: Herbert Jacobson-- Part 7

This is the final entry in the story of Herbert Jacobson, one of the USS Oklahoma's unknowns who had since been identified and buried at Arlington National Cemetery.  I wrote about this story in seven of my eight blogs today.

Brad McDonald has a half-inch thick booklet containing the massive amount of technology and analysis used to identify his uncle and the other USS Oklahoma unknowns.

Of the 429 crewmen killed on the ship, 22 are still unidentified, likely because DNA samples from relatives weren't available,  Brad McDonald said.  He and other family members are traveling from Wisconin for the burial simply feel fortunate to have closure.

"It's a solemn occasion, but there's a sense of joy involved because we've been waiting a long time for this," he said.  "For me, it's nothing short of a miracle that they can identify someone who died 81 years ago."

A Great Story.

North Dakota Soldier Identified 80 Years After KIA: Pfc. Robert Alexander

From the November 3, 2022, KFYR TV "World War II soldier from ND identified 80 years after he was killed in action" by Hope Sisk.

Army Pfc.  Robert Alexander was only 27 when he was killed by Japanese forces in a mass suicide attack on his regiment in the Mariana Islands near Guam in July 1944.

The native of Tolley, North Dakota, could not be identified until June 2022 when the Department of Defense 's accounting agency ussed dental and DNA to determine his remains.

He will soon be buried in Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, November 14.

--GreGen

USS California Unknown Identified: Pete Turk

From the October 14, 2022, 12 WIBW, Topeka, Kansas, "WW II veteran to be laid to rest in Junction City" by Alex Taylor.

The remains of Seaman 2nd Class Pete Turk will return home to Kansas and laid to rest at the Kansas Veterans' Cemetery on Monday October 17 at 10:30 am with full military honors.

Pete Turk was in the U.S. Navy and was killed in action on Sunday, December 7, 1941,  while stationed on the battleship USS California.  He was twenty years old.

In 2018, the DPAA exhumed the twenty-five USS California unknowns from the Punchbowl for  analysis.

Turk is the first USS California sailor to be indentified.

--GreGen

Herbert 'Bert' Jacobson, USS Oklahoma Unknown, Laid to Rest-- Part 2

In 2015, the Department of Defense announced they were going to disinter the remains of the Oklahoma Unknowns and use new scientific methods to identify them.  The Jacobson family was ecstatic.  They said their mother cried every December 7 because of his death and especially since his body's location was unknown.

This Project Oklahoma has led to the identification of  355 men, including Herbert.  This leaves 33 sets still to be identified.  To mark the 80th anniversary of the attack, those 33 were reinterred.

As far as Herbert Jacobson's death, all they knew was what shipmates had told them.  He had just come off duty after spending several hours ferrying men to the shore.  A good friend had told them that he was pretty sure that Jacobson was asleep in his bunk and died before he even knew there was a war going on.

The family was notified that Herbert's remains had been identified in 2019 and were hoping the burial could take the following year, but then COVID-19.

--GreGen

Sailor Killed at Pearl Harbor Coming Home to Mississippi: John Russell Melton

From July 3, 2022 Kicks 96 News.

In 1941, as the holidays approached, a Mississippi sailor from Liberty stationed at Pearl Harbor on the USS West Virginia wrote home to his family that he was looking forward to coming home for Christmas.  But Seaman First Class John Russell Melton never made it.

He was among those killed on the battleship USS West Virginia when it was hit by at least seven Japanese torpedoes and two armor-piercing  bombs on December 7, 1941.

His remains were never identified and were buried along with other unknowns in a grave in Hawaii.  But, they were disinterred in 2017 and sent to a lab for analysis -- and his family contacted for DNA samples which led to his identification.

And, he'll be coming home to Mississippi this Wednesday, July 6.  His remains will be sent to New Orleans and then a motorcade will head to his hometown where flags will be displayed and people will pay their respects.

Saturday there will be a funeral with full military honors.  The family intends to have him buried in a church cemetery along side his parents.

GreGen

80 Years On, the Told and Untold Stories of Pearl Harbor-- Part 4: The Story of Stephen Pepe of the USS Oklahoma

While Eugene Marchand was watching the attack unfold from the hospital, another sailor in the harbor was doing all he could to save his shipmates on the USS Oklahoma.

His name was Stephen Pepe.

He was a water tender/fireman on that ship, responsible for stoking the boilers to keep the ship moving.

His niece, Terry Kovaks, 90,  remembers him as a big man with a big heart.

Then in 2018, she learned that he was coming home for internment after his remains were unidentified after recovery from the stricken ship.  But Terry and her daughter  Barbara Kovaks gave DNA which led to his identification.

Stephen Pepe did not live to tell his story, but the Kovaks received a packet of information from the Navy including a story from one of Stephen's shipmates on the Oklahoma, Finch Stowell.  His widow, Lida, had told a reporter what he had told her about that day.

It said that Pepe had put himself in danger to save his buddies and paid the ultimate price.

When the ship was hit by all the torpedoes and began to capsize, it began filling up with water.  Finch Stowell was outside a porthole and pulling men to safety.  Unfortunately, Pepe was too big to fit through it, but he didn't try to find another way out, but stayed by the porthole and pushed the men out.

--GreGen

A Hero's Return Home-- Part 4: Francis Wiemerslage

It wasn't until 2019 when the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) assisted by archaeology students from Western Carolina University did another search of the area and fund more material which was sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for scientific analysis.

On August 24, 2021, 76 years after being shot down over Germany, Wiemerslage's remains were positively identified using DNA analysis.

Since Wiemerslage has now been identified, a rosette will be placed next to his name on the Tablet of the Missing at the cemetery in Belgium to indicate that he has been accounted for.

On Friday, Wiemerslage's remains arrived on a Southwest Airlines flight.  At the airport, Midway Airport Fire and Rescue created an arc of water cannons that the plane passed under once it landed.  Then, befo any passengers exited the plane, members of the U.S. Army Honor Guard received Wiemerslage's remains.

--GreGen

A Hero's Return Home-- Part 2: Sgt. Francis Wiemerslage

On Friday, five members of the Wiemerslage family were met at Midway Airport by members of the River Grove American Legion, Rolling Thunder and the Patriot Guard Riders and the U.S. Army Honor Guard.

Francis, called Frankie by his family, had a sister and two brothers.  His brother Roland passed away in 2019 at the age of 84 and searched for his brother most of his life and gave a DNA sample  to assist in recovery efforts shortly before he died.

One of his last words to his family before he died was "Don't forget about Frankie."

After the war, the American Graves Registration Command was in charge of recovering remains of fallen service members in Europe.  Between 1947 and 1948, the remains of all the airmen who died in the B-17 crash, except for Wiemerslage were found and identified.

Because there was no evidence that he was a prisoner of war, a finding of death was issued a year after the crash.  His name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Hombourg, Belgium, along with the others still missing from World War II.

GreGen

USS Oklahoma Sailor from LaClede Comes Home: George Merton Gooch

From the October 1, 2021, Linn County Leader (Missouri) "Laclede native  coming home decades after death at Pearl Harbor" by Angie Talken.

Laclede native George Merton Gooch, Petty Officer 3rd Class, died December 7, 1941, on board the battleship USS Oklahoma.  His remains have finally been identified and he will be buried October 9 in his home town of Laclede, Missouri.

He was born April 23, 1919, to Linn  and Hulda Mae Gooch in Purdin, Missouri, and was a 1939 graduate of Laclede High School.  In 1939, he joined the U.S. Navy.

His remains were identified using family DNA.

Welcome Home.  --GreGen

USS West Virginia Unknown Identified and Buried May 31 in Kentucky: Wellborn Ashby

"Pearl Harbor  casualty arrives  in Kentucky 80 years later --  Honolulu, Hawaii"  June 4, 2021

Martha Christian once traveled to Pearl Harbor and dipped her feet in the water as she cried thinking about her long lost brother from that Day of Infamy.   His name was Wellborn Ashby.  His body was later recovered after the ship was raised, but was unidentifiable.

That is, until DNA and other testing became available.

All his family knew for sure was that some of the West Virginia's crew died instantly  and that as a Navy Firefighter he probably was involved in the effort to keep the ship from capsizing like the USS Oklahoma as it sank.

******************************

From Honor States.com

Wellborn Lee Ashby

Born October 19, 1917  Died December 7, 1941

Fireman 3rd Class

Enlisted in US Navy September 24, 1940

Identified  20 November 2020.

--GreGen

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

Remains of USS Oklahoma Sailor Identified: William E. Blanchard

Navy Boilermaker  1st Class William Eugene Blanchard.

His grandson, Chris Blanchard and another family member provided DNA samples.  Williams legs, part of his pelvic bone and  most of his skull remain.

He was 24 at the time of his death.  Blanchard was identified on January 4, 2021.

His remains will be reinterred at New Hollywood Cemetery, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.  He is survived also by his son,  William Eugene Blanchard of Elizabeth City, N.C.

Funeral services with military honors will be held June 7, 2021.

One of the people writing condolences said that her father, Boilermaker 1st Class  John Neil was also on the Oklahoma that day and along with another shipmate were able to  crawl through a gap in the hull and swim to safety, mostly underwater because of fires burning on the surface.

All his life he thought about his fellow shipmates who did not survive and that William was never forgotten.

--GreGen