Families in DNA push for Pearl Harbor casualties

HONOLULU, Hawaii－After graduating from high school in rural Washington state, William Edward Mann enlisted in the Navy. A guitar player, he picked up the ukulele while stationed in Hawaii.

He had been presumed dead since Dec 7, 1941, when Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor and set off a massive explosion that sank his battleship, the USS Arizona, launching the United States into World War II.

Now, Mann's niece is among some families of crew members who are demanding the US military to take advantage of advances in DNA technology to identify 85 sailors and Marines from the Arizona who were buried as unknowns. They said the military has disinterred and identified remains from other Pearl Harbor battleships and should do the same for their loved ones.

"These men matter and they served. They gave their lives for our country. And they deserve the same honor and respect as any other service member past, present and future," Teri Mann Whyatt said.

The Arizona suffered more loss of life than any other ship at Pearl Harbor with 1,177 dead. More than 900 went down with the ship and have remained entombed there ever since.

As with remains on other sunken ships, the Navy considers those aboard the Arizona to be in their final resting place. The families are not advocating for them to be removed and identified.

The issue is the 85 Arizona unknowns buried in a Hawaii cemetery. It emerged in February when the director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency was asked during a Facebook Live meeting when the agency would disinter them.

Kelly McKeague said his agency had spoken to the Navy about exhuming the Arizona unknowns and moving them to the ship without identifying them first. McKeague said it did not make "pragmatic sense" to identify them.

Outrage expressed

This outraged some families who feared remains of the 85 personnel would be placed on the sunken battleship without ever being identified.

The agency has since said it does not plan to move the cemetery remains onto the ship. Rear Admiral Darius Banaji, the agency's deputy director, said that was just a possibility discussed informally a few years ago.

The military has files on just half of those missing from the Arizona, he said. Of those, it has medical records listing age, height and other information. It has dental records for 130 men.

The agency, aiming to find more than 80,000 service members missing from World War II and on, has successfully identified unknowns from USS Oklahoma, another battleship that capsized during the Pearl Harbor bombing.

Agencies via Xinhua