A Georgia sailor will be laid to rest Thursday, 82 years after he died during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
According to Fox 5 Atlanta, Shipfitter 3rd Class John Donald was one of 429 sailors lost on the USS Oklahoma on December 7, 1941. The station reported that the 28-year-old Marietta resident was identified on April 11, 2018.
The attack cost the lives of 2,403 US personnel and destroyed or damaged 19 US Navy ships.
While the majority of missing sailors were marked as unknown and buried in caskets, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s USS Oklahoma Project was able to locate relatives of those killed aboard the USS Oklahoma. Worked with genealogists for
The process began in 2003, with the disposal of a single container of the remains of the “unidentified” USS Oklahoma. Analysis revealed that the coffin contained the partial remains of about 100 people.
The project collectively accounted for all personnel lost during Pearl Harbor and was able to individually identify all but 334 of the remains. There was a ceremony for these families in Hawaii on December 7, 2021.
“This is a mission that doesn’t stop. And every time an identity is found, we’re just as happy as we are for this family. And at the end of the process, we hope the family gets the closure they need. They were searching and it was handled in a dignified way,” Lt. Commander Jorie Moore, who served as branch head of POW/MIA, told the station. .
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