On Dec. 7, a sailor killed at Pearl Harbor might be buried at Fort Rosecrans Nationwide Cemetery in San Diego. It is going to be an particularly poignant day for 3 sisters and their members of the family who dwell in La Jolla.
They’re the granddaughters of Daniel Fletcher Harris, chief fireplace controlman of the Oklahoma battleship, one of many first bombed when Japanese plane attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Harris, born in 1901 in South Carolina, was stationed on the Naval Coaching Station San Diego in 1937 when he was assigned to serve on the Oklahoma. He left behind his spouse, Aino, and a 2-year-old daughter, Joyce, who later graduated from Helix Excessive Faculty.
The stays of Harris and his shipmates who could not be recognized remained in Hawaii graves for years till substantial advances had been made in DNA and identification expertise.
These graves and others bearing service members from further U.S. Navy ships that met their demise at Pearl Harbor are being re-examined systematically by scientists of the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company within the hope of bringing closure to family members — finally.
The Navy started the grim process of disinterring and figuring out the stays of the Oklahoma’s 388 lacking service members in 2015. (They at the moment are working to determine smaller numbers of lacking sailors from the West Virginia, California, Utah and Nevada ships.)
In its quest to make a constructive match, the Navy first reached out to households of the unidentified casualties requesting a reference pattern of DNA.
Since then, 355 have been positively recognized, together with seven Navy members and one Marine from the San Diego space. The stays of the remaining 33 service members who couldn’t be positively recognized, together with one from San Diego County, had been re-laid to relaxation in Hawaii with full army honors.
The households of these recognized got the selection of burial on the Nationwide Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii, the place they beforehand had been interred, or a military-paid funeral at a cemetery of their selection.
“That is the covenant this nation makes to its service members,” explains Kelly McKeague, head of the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company. He stresses the adage: “Depart no man behind.”
He found that, regardless of the passage of years, members of the family nonetheless craved solutions. Tales of family members who died in fight had been handed down by means of generations, and the dearth of a physique posed haunting, unanswered questions.
McKeague described household reactions to identification information as “euphoric” — a combination of sorrow and pleasure as a result of the loss is offset by the truth that the liked one lastly has come residence to relaxation.
Harris’ granddaughters, Shannon McKee, Jeanne McKee and Dianne McKee Roberts, had been notified in August 2019 {that a} constructive match had been product of their grandfather.
“I could not consider it,” Shannon says. “The day I acquired the decision was anniversary of our mom’s dying.”
As a result of their mom was solely 2 when her organic dad died, she by no means knew him. “We do not know a lot, aside from he met my grandmother in New York. She had come over from Finland,” explains Shannon. Harris’ widow remarried when Joyce was nonetheless younger.
They haven’t any footage of their grandfather, aside from these in his U.S. Navy file. Nonetheless, his reminiscence was stored alive. Shannon visited the Pearl Harbor Nationwide Memorial when she was about 15.
Years later, she started a convention of taking her nieces and nephews to go to Pearl Harbor and to see the USS Oklahoma plaque bearing Daniel Harris’ title once they graduated from school.
The bonus reward is, due to the Navy’s genealogical analysis, the granddaughters are getting in contact with family of their grandparents they by no means knew.
On Dec. 1, they gathered on the San Diego airport to satisfy a Southwest flight bearing Daniel Harris’ stays from Nebraska, the place a lab on Offutt Air Drive Base conducts scientific evaluation.
Earlier than passengers deboarded, the pilot greeted them, and the casket was ceremoniously met by a Navy honor guard. Harris’ stays then had been escorted to the cemetery by motorcade flanked by Patriot Guard Riders.
McKeague says some households select reinterment in Hawaii, some go for Arlington Nationwide Cemetery, however the overwhelming majority select a household cemetery of their hometown.
“We selected Fort Rosecrans Nationwide Cemetery as a result of his spouse and daughter are each buried in San Diego,” Shannon says. “That is the place he was residing, so we thought we’d reunite him with them.”
Along with his three granddaughters, Harris has 5 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
Members of the family will proceed to honor Harris by means of visits to the cemetery, provides Shannon. “We need to maintain his reminiscence alive.”
“I feel it is superb, in any case these years, to have these stays and, by means of DNA, have the ability to determine him. … Our household could not be extra grateful to the Navy for all their persistence and the laborious work they’ve accomplished in ensuring that he’s in a position to be put at relaxation.”
Carrie LeGarde, lead anthropologist of The USS Oklahoma Undertaking, says Harris was recognized by means of DNA from his fibula.
Identification was particularly difficult and complicated as a result of stays had been comingled in group graves. For example, one casket contained 94 separate DNA sequences.
For many who couldn’t be recognized, they typically lacked a relative’s DNA pattern. For example, the one San Diego sailor who was reinterred in Hawaii, Musician 1st Class Rowland Hampton Smith, was adopted, and Navy genealogical researchers could not determine a organic relative.
LeGarde says, by means of her case analysis, she makes a reference to all these sailors. “I actually get pleasure from … seeing them go residence.”
An particularly touching case was that of twins, Leo and Rudolph Blitz, who died collectively on the Oklahoma. LeGarde was invited to their funeral and met 4 generations of the Blitz household.
“They gave me a pin and mentioned I used to be a part of the household. We regularly do not get to have that communication with the households. It made it that rather more particular,” she says.
McKeague notes that his company is working in 46 international locations throughout the globe to search out and determine stays of service members from 4 main conflicts. “It is a chance for this nation to make proper one thing that leaves a void within the hearts and minds of households.”
The Oklahoma, moored on Battleship Row, was among the many first hit by Japanese plane torpedoes. In line with Navy data, most crew members had been nonetheless of their sleeping quarters through the assault at 7:55 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 7.
Inside quarter-hour of the primary strike, the Oklahoma had rolled over, imprisoning these unable to flee inside her hull. Sailors trapped inside began banging on the bulkhead to draw the eye of passing boats.
Holes had been reduce within the uncovered ship backside and 32 males had been pulled out alive. Nothing extra might be accomplished, and the bulkhead banging continued by means of Dec. 10 as helpless sailors stood watch over the sunken ship ready and listening till the banging pale away.
In whole, 429 sailors misplaced their lives on the Oklahoma.
“We notice what a particular reward it’s,” Shannon says. “And our hearts exit to the entire army who haven’t been discovered.”
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