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First USS Oklahoma Remains Exhumed
KFOR ^ | JUNE 10, 2015 | M.DELATORRE

Posted on 06/11/2015 9:43:00 AM PDT by nickcarraway

The Defense Department announced in April that the remains of up to nearly 400 unaccounted for service members tied to the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor will be exhumed.

That process began on Monday.

“This was the first set of remains from the USS Oklahoma to be disinterred,” said Jim Horton, the director of the Punchbowl cemetery.

Disinterment ceremonies were held when the bones of Korean War veterans were exhumed for identification. Now, hundreds who served on USS Oklahoma during World War II may also be identified.

The attacked happened at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. But many bodies weren’t removed until months later, making it difficult to positively identify the servicemen.

“We will take care of disinterring 65 caskets in 41 grave sites. That is approximately 388 sets of remains,” said Horton.

As each set of remains is removed, special ceremonies will be held at the cemetery.

“We will have full military detail. The coffins are draped with the American flag when they are removed and they are given full military transfer,” added Horton.

The remains will face months of DNA and forensic work, but those who suffered a loss in Pearl Harbor are one step closer to peace.


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: battleship; fdr; hawaii; navy; pearlharbor; usnavy; ussoklahoma; worldwareleven; ww2; wwii
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1 posted on 06/11/2015 9:43:00 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

A good deed.


2 posted on 06/11/2015 9:47:04 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS
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To: nickcarraway

Why now? Why not let them rest in peace?


3 posted on 06/11/2015 9:47:40 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (A free society canÂ’t let the parameters of its speech be set by murderous extremists.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I agree leave them be


4 posted on 06/11/2015 9:50:02 AM PDT by al baby (Hi Mom)
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To: nickcarraway
The attacked happened at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. But many bodies weren’t removed until months later ...
A hell of a book ...
5 posted on 06/11/2015 9:50:11 AM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: nickcarraway


6 posted on 06/11/2015 9:51:44 AM PDT by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Why now? Why not let them rest in peace?

...

Because now we have the technology to identify them.

It makes me wonder what our technology will be like a thousand years from now.


7 posted on 06/11/2015 9:54:00 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: oh8eleven

I read that. I cannot imagine what that was like for those divers...the book told you, but...

Great book.


8 posted on 06/11/2015 9:54:55 AM PDT by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant.)
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To: nickcarraway

Disinterment ceremonies were held when the bones of Korean War veterans were exhumed for identification.

...

I read that the unknown soldier from the Vietnam war was recently identified, removed and placed in his own grave.


9 posted on 06/11/2015 9:55:52 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: nickcarraway; MeganC

I think they will have to try and Exhume the 900 Sailors and Marines that are still in the U.S.S. Arizona because the Ship it’s self will eventually rust away.


10 posted on 06/11/2015 9:58:15 AM PDT by KC_Lion (PLEASE SUPPORT FR. Donate Monthly or Join Club 300! G-d bless you all!)
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To: nickcarraway

Mixed feelings about this. While, it might be appropriate to identify the remains so families can have closure and couldbreinter the remains in other places, it isn’t that the families likely didn’t know the whereabouts of their loved ones decades ago. Maybe it might be best to let them rest in peace with their shipmates.


11 posted on 06/11/2015 10:01:46 AM PDT by The Great RJ (“Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money.” Margaret Thatcher)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

I kind of wondered the same.

The disturbance to the remains turned over to the lab for picking through and inspecting seems out of place to me. To satisfy the science so that we who are left can know their names for a day, and then move along?

Leave heroes with their God, their bodies to earth’s tomb, in peace. (imho)


12 posted on 06/11/2015 10:02:44 AM PDT by RitaOK ( VIVA CRISTO REY / Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming)
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To: Homer_J_Simpson

For Your Attention


13 posted on 06/11/2015 10:03:40 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

That just seems most correct to me. Leave them alone. The dead know nothing and the living have already grieved. Why start it all again?


14 posted on 06/11/2015 10:06:18 AM PDT by Sequoyah101
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To: nickcarraway
shivers.....

Lord, I miss my country..

15 posted on 06/11/2015 10:09:31 AM PDT by cherry
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To: The Great RJ

I believe the families had closure, and lived in peace that their loved one was not alone but was in peace, in the company of heroes whom they must have loved.

Arlington Cemetery itself could offer no more gallant field in which to lie in repose than the sacred waters of Pearl Harbor.


16 posted on 06/11/2015 10:09:32 AM PDT by RitaOK ( VIVA CRISTO REY / Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming)
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To: The Great RJ

its called respect.....its called tribute.....we should honor in all ways possible our sailors and soldiers who were killed by our enemies....even if its a token gesture, it says something about OUR country even now....that we have a sliver of decency left...


17 posted on 06/11/2015 10:13:07 AM PDT by cherry
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To: KC_Lion

It’s unlikely anything organic is left to identify.


18 posted on 06/11/2015 10:23:48 AM PDT by cbvanb
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To: nickcarraway

My understanding garnered from the article is that the remains of our Soldiers, Marines, and Sailors that were on the Oklahoma were removed from the ship and buried in caskets on land. If this is what happened, I have no issue with identifying the remains, and hopefully given full military honors burial.

If they are interred on the ship, I think they should be allowed to remain there, undisturbed.


19 posted on 06/11/2015 10:31:12 AM PDT by Glennb51
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To: nickcarraway

How can we, as a country, waste our energy on this endeavor? I thought United States of America’s top priority was transgenderism.


20 posted on 06/11/2015 10:32:30 AM PDT by The_Media_never_lie (The media must be defeated any way it can be done.)
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