Sailor who died along with 428 crew members during the attack on Pearl Harbor has finally been found Blogging Sole

A U.S. Navy sailor who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor has been found decades after his death, military officials said Thursday.

U.S. Navy Able Seaman John C. Auld, 23, was from Newcastle, England, according to a press release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He was assigned to USS Oklahomaa battleship docked at Pearl Harbor in 1941.

On December 7, Auld was aboard the ship when Japanese pilots attacked Pearl Harbor. During the attack, the USS Oklahoma took several torpedo hits and capsized just 12 minutes after being first hit. according to the Ministry of Defense. Four hundred and twenty-nine crew members, including Auld, died. Only 32 crew members survived, thanks to what the Defense Ministry called “acts of bravery” by other service members. This was the highest death toll for any ship that day, except for the USS Arizona, which lost more than 1,100 sailors.

It took Navy personnel three years to recover the crew’s remains. The remains were buried in the Halawa and Nu’uanu cemeteries on Oahu in 1944, and in 1947 military officials began working to identify the remains. The remains were exhumed and transferred to a laboratory, where 35 sets of remains were identified.

The unidentified remains were reburied at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. The names of those who could not be identified were recorded in the Courts of the Missing at the cemetery.

Between June and November 2015, these remains were exhumed again and analyzed in the DPAA laboratory. Scientists used anthropological analysis, DNA analysis, and circumstantial and physical evidence to make the identification. In 2018, Auld’s remains were identified. However, it was only recently that the DPAA was informed that Auld’s family had been informed of his identification, leading to a delay in the announcement.

The Ministry of Defense announced earlier this month that the remains of all crew members who died aboard the USS Oklahoma have been identified. Pearl Harbor survivors will commemorate the 83rd anniversary of the attack on Saturday.

Now that Auld has been identified, a rosette will be placed next to his name at the Court of the Missing. He was buried Friday morning in Albuquerque, New Mexico, according to DPAA and a funeral notice shared online.