Dept. Of Defense Will Exhume USS Oklahoma Sailors & Marines

The Department of Defense announced Tuesday the remains of up to 388 unaccounted for sailors and Marines, associated with the USS Oklahoma, will be exhumed later this year.

Tuesday, April 14th 2015, 4:14 pm

By: News 9


The Department of Defense announced Tuesday the remains of up to 388 unaccounted for sailors and Marines, associated with the USS Oklahoma, will be exhumed later this year.

DOD officials said upon disinterment, the remains will be transferred to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) laboratory in Hawaii for examination. Analysis of all available evidence indicates that most USS Oklahoma crew members can reportedly be identified upon disinterment.

3/31/2015 Related Story: Pentagon Considers Whether To Exhume USS Oklahoma Crew Members

Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work said he approved the disinterment of unknowns associated with the USS Oklahoma and also established a broader DOD policy, which defines threshold criteria for disinterment of unknowns.

"The secretary of defense and I will work tirelessly to ensure your loved one's remains will be recovered, identified, and returned to you as expeditiously as possible, and we will do so with dignity, respect and care," said Work. "While not all families will receive an individual identification, we will strive to provide resolution to as many families as possible."

The disinterment policy applies to all unidentified remains from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and other permanent American military cemeteries. However, this policy does not extend to those sailor and Marines lost at sea or to remains entombed in U.S. Navy vessels serving as national memorials.

DOD officials said the threshold criteria includes research, family reference samples to compare DNA, obtaining medical and dental records of the missing service members, and having the scientific ability and capacity to identify the remains in a timely manner. To disinter cases of commingled remains, the department must estimate the ability to identify at least 60 percent of the individuals associated with a group. A likelihood of at least 50 percent identification must be attained for individual unknowns.

"The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is prepared to begin this solemn undertaking in concert with ongoing worldwide recovery missions. Personally, I am most privileged to be part of this honorable mission, and I very much appreciate the efforts of many people who saw this revised disinterment policy come to fruition," said Rear Adm. Mike Franken, DPAA acting director.

Navy and Marine Corps casualty offices began notifying the next-of-kin this morning.

12/7/2015 Related Story: Veterans In OKC Remember Lives Lost On The USS Oklahoma

On December 7, 1941, the USS Oklahoma sank when it was hit by torpedoes during the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. A total of 429 sailors and Marines were killed. In the years immediately following the attacks, 35 crew members were positively identified and buried.

From June 1942 to May 1944, during salvage operations of the ship, the Navy removed the rest of the human remains. They were initially interred as unknowns, in Nuuanu and Halawa cemeteries in Hawaii. 

In 1947 all remains in those cemeteries were disinterred for attempted identification. Twenty-seven unknowns from the USS Oklahoma were proposed for identification based on dental comparisons, but all proposed identifications were disapproved.

The ship was eventually righted and sold to a scrapyard in San Francisco but sank about 500 miles from Hawaii while being towed there in May of 1947.

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