The U.S. military has revealed that it intends to exhume the remains of unknown Pearl Harbor heroes for DNA identification.
Officials announced on Tuesday plans to identify the remains of nearly 388 marines and sailors who were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941. These unidentified individuals from the USS Oklahoma were buried as unknowns after the World War II.
In 1950, they were reburied inside a volcanic crater in Honolulu, Hawaii, which was once called the Hill of Sacrifice. Today, it is known as the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Seven decades after the Pearl Harbor attack, which was instrumental in America's entry into the war, the U.S. military will deploy DNA testing to identify the unknown marines and sailors from USS Oklahoma.
When Japanese torpedoes hit, the attack sank the ship and killed 429 marines and sailors. Since the remains of most crew members were unidentifiable, they were interred at the memorial grounds in Honolulu. In the years that followed, only 35 remains were identified.
Now, the Pentagon has decided the remains of the still unidentified crew members of the USS Oklahoma will be exhumed from the cemetery and shipped to a laboratory of the Defense Department in Hawaii.
The forensic analysis is expected to begin in the next three to six weeks, but officials anticipate that the process of identifying the victims will be completed in five years.
With innovations in technology and forensic science, including DNA testing, at their disposal, the U.S. military is optimistic that it will be successful in identifying the unknowns.
"Recent advances in forensic science and technology, as well as family member assistance in providing genealogical information, have now made it possible to make individual identifications for many service members long-buried in graves marked 'unknown,'" revealed Robert Work, Deputy Defense Secretary.
Work also said that heroes who will be identified by the team will be given a proper burial with military honors.
For the entire exhumation process to be allowed in the first place, researchers will need to verify that at least 60 percent of the remains that will be taken out can be identified individually, explained Work. The team will also need to study medical and dental records and collect DNA samples from the family of the unknowns in order to have materials for comparison.
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