Thanks BenLurkin.
Posted on 03/31/2024 7:11:16 PM PDT by BenLurkin
David Walker from Norfolk, Va., was 19 years old when Japanese torpedoes sunk his battleship at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Walker was presumed dead following the attack on the Hawaii naval base, but his body was never recovered — that is, until recently.
Officials announced on Thursday that Walker's remains were finally accounted for, thanks to scientists at the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) whose mission is to recover and return missing service members from past conflicts.
In a news release, the DPAA said that in 2018, military officials exhumed the unidentified remains of 25 people who were from Walker's battleship, the USS California, and buried in Honolulu. According to the agency, scientists used anthropological, dental and DNA analysis to determine that Walker was among those remains.
The DPAA said Walker will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Sept. 5. A rosette will also be placed next to his name at the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu to indicate that he has been accounted for.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
A little bit of good news goes a long ways.
He was flown home and buried in Palo Pinto County (Texas y’all).
Rest In Peace, David.
Amen
RIP.
I watch a video channel of Russian metal detectorists who search in the forests and swamps near the sites of WWII battlefields in Russia. They’ve have found the remains of several German and Russian soldiers, also Russian pilots whose planes were shot down. They look for part numbers on what’s left of the planes, in order to identify the type of plane, which in turn, they can check the military archives, and possibly match up with a known crash, and find out who the pilot was of that plane. In most cases, the wrecks are buried several feet down, and the dirt, depending on its make-up, will have preserved the personal papers and ID records of that pilot. It’s just amazing how much WWII paraphernalia is still out there.
In one episode, they were metal detecting on a frozen pond or river, with a strong magnet through an ice hole, and retrieved a Russian or German weapon, so well preserved, it looked like it was made yesterday. They were even able to fire it, that’s how pristine it was. But because of the laws in Russia, they couldn’t take it with them, and ended up putting it back in the water. Shame.
I recommend a book called “Descent into Darkness” by Edward C. Raymer. He was a Navy diver who was the first to enter the sunken wreck of the USS Arizona a couple of weeks after December 7th. His account of that dive is downright chilling, as he described the pitch black, oily water and encountering numerous floating corpses of the dead. Raymer wrote that the marine scavangers had eaten away the flesh from the fingers of the dead, and that when their skeletal remains brushed across his diving helmet, it made a sound like wind chimes. Spooky and sobering.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_California_(BB-44)
“...A pair of Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers approached and dropped their torpedoes toward California. Both hit the ship at 08:05, one forward and the other further aft. The former detonated below the armor belt at frame 52 (between number 2 turret and the bridge), creating a hole 10 feet high and 24 feet long, destructively deforming the first torpedo bulkhead and transverse stiffeners between frames 47 and 60, and holing the second bulkhead with fragments. The latter tore a hole that was 40 feet long below the belt armor. The interior torpedo bulkheads nevertheless held and helped to contain the flooding.
The ship had been prepared for inspection at the time of the attack, so the watertight doors had all been opened; the crew was still in the process of closing the doors when the torpedoes struck and flooding began. Many of the portholes and exterior doors were also open for the inspection, which allowed water to enter the ship...”
The ship was repaired and returned to service.
My mother-in-law’s only sibling was MIA, presumably KIA in Korea. She’s still living (almost 90). It would be so amazing if he would be found and identified before she passes.
It is incredible that they now have the resources to bring some of these heroes home.
RIP Shipmate. We have the watch.
Thanks BenLurkin.
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