Oklahoma Family Honors Life Of Navy Fireman Who Died At Pearl Harbor

This Veterans Day, an Oklahoma family is honoring the life of a Navy Fireman whose remains were just recently identified, more than 70 years after he was killed.

He died during the attack on Pearl Harbor and was buried on what would have been his 100th birthday.

Rex E. Wise's family has been waiting more than 70 years for this day.

"To think that somebody in our family would be honored in this way, it brought closure too because we never thought we would ever see this come to pass," said Rex’s 83-year-old niece Marilyn Weller.

Wise was on the U.S.S. Oklahoma battleship during Pearl Harbor when it was hit by torpedoes and capsized. Wise died, along with more than 400 crewman.

"I just wish I had known him to tell you more about him," Weller said. "All I know is what I have heard and I haven't heard a lot because they just didn't talk about it in the family. I don't know why. I think they just thought they would never hear anymore."

Weller said her mother sent DNA to an agency within the Department of Defense in 2015 and then she died in 2017. Two years later, the family got a call that the DNA sample helped identify her brother's remains. He was coming home.

"We got to go to the airport as a family and watch the casket being taken off of the plane," said Weller.

Decades after Wise's death, on what would have been his 100th birthday, he was given the military funeral he deserved.

"For me, it meant a closing for our parents really," Wise's 80-year-old nephew Rodney Wise said. "It finally happened, they just didn't live long enough to see that it did."