"Royle Luker, who died at age 17 while serving as a fireman 3rd class aboard the USS West Virginia during the 1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, poses in an undated photo. (U.S. Navy)"
Posted on 05/25/2026 6:12:21 AM PDT by DFG
A U.S. Navy sailor who died at age 17 aboard the battleship USS West Virginia during the 1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor will be buried May 30 in his Arkansas hometown.
Fireman 3rd Class Royle Luker will be buried with full military honors at New Bethel Cemetery in Plainview, where he was raised before enlisting in June 1941, according to a Navy news release Wednesday.
He was the son of George Luker, a World War I veteran, and Nettie Estelle David Luker. He is survived by two nephews and a niece, according to his obituary on the Cornwell Funeral Home of Darndanelle, Ark., website.
The presiding Navy flag officer at the ceremony will be Rear Adm. Michael Van Poots, deputy commander of Submarine Forces.
Luker was among the 105 West Virginia crew members who died on Dec. 7, 1941.
His remains were unidentifiable with forensic methods available in that era, and he was buried in the grave marked “unknown.”
The West Virginia was hit by at least seven torpedoes as the ship was moored at Ford Island on Battleship Row.
It sank in the shallow water and came to rest on the harbor floor.
Salvage work began soon after the attack. Torpedo holes were patched well enough to pump the ship dry, and it was refloated on May 17, 1942.
“Following the attack, rescuers were alerted that sailors were alive within the hull by tapping sounds coming from within the ship,” the Navy release said.
“The trapped sailors were sitting on tons of live sunken ammunition and no technology existed back then to rescue them,” it said. “All rescue personnel could do was stand by helplessly.”
Some survived for days in air pockets, living on emergency rations and freshwater.
Three men survived in an airtight storeroom until Dec. 23, leaving behind a calendar with 16 days crossed out in red pencil, the Navy release states.
Salvagers discovered the remains of about 70 men below decks, according to the Navy release.
Dozens of recovered remains were interred at the Halawa Naval Cemetery on Oahu.
They were disinterred in 1947 by personnel with the American Graves Registration Service, who identified all but 34 remains.
Those remains were designated “non-recoverable” and buried as unknowns in what is now the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
In 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which uses forensic methods to identify the nation’s war dead, exhumed 35 caskets containing remains associated with the West Virginia.
Luker was among those.
"Royle Luker, who died at age 17 while serving as a fireman 3rd class aboard the USS West Virginia during the 1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, poses in an undated photo. (U.S. Navy)"
Lest we forget.
A teachable moment for sure for the young.
Otherwise many Deaf ears need opening.
He was a true patriot.
Amen.
RIP now back home.
Wow, just a kid!
My mother said the entire senior class at her high school was wiped out in WW II - the boys couldn’t wait to enlist, it’s all they talked about - many of them doing so the day they graduated.
RIP and honors to all who served and gave their lives to this great country.
That picture!
It looks like a professional head shot, taken yesterday!
Presuming it’s not AI(!): Good heavens. Practically an infant. What a beautiful boy. And what a great country we have, to mourn his loss in such a dignified way, so many scores of years later.
Prayers to his family...
This picture... it just kills me.
I work at a local high school. This kid looks like he could be any one of my students today.
May this young hero rest in peace.
His parents though... dang. I couldn’t begin to imagine what they went through waiting for word of their son. It probably took at least two weeks to let families know what their loved one’s status was: Alive, KIA or MIA. Probably several more weeks to confirm a death. This family probably got the Presumed KIA letter in Mid-January. My wife would be a train wreck. Poor things.
God Speed Petty Officer Luker!
Reminds me of the fate of the students in All Quiet On The Western Front. The original with Lew Ayres still haunts me.
GOD bless our heroes.
This story brought tears to my eyes. God Bless this sailor.
Royle Bradford Luker
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95790128/royle_bradford-luker
(Hawaii info) Royle Bradford Luker
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/56123831/royle_bradford-luker
his mom:
Nettie Estelle David Luker
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95790041/nettie-estelle-luker
dad:
George F. Luker
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95789905/george_f-luker
The newer, 2022 German version of “All Quiet on the Western Front” is also haunting - and heartbreaking - shows young students being recruited right in their school to sign up for the “fatherland.”
They couldn’t wait to go - until they saw the actual horrors of the war. All of them were killed.
German film similar idea but WWII - Generation War.
Also had in it the angst and inner psychological horror of being a decent person fighting for Nazi Germany.
"A young German soldier's eagerness to serve his country quickly fades when he witnesses the horrors of combat on the Western Front during World War I."
"Germany, May 1917. 17-year-old Paul Baumer enthusiastically enlists in the German army and heads off to war."
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016150/?ref_=fn_t_1
Streaming on Netflix.
Man, this picture kills me. It makes me remember how young all the guys around me when I was in the military, especially in basic training. There were a couple of “old” guys (in their mid or late 20’s) but most of us looked just like this.
What a good looking lad. I can only image he otherwise would have been at home chasing girls, working on his parents’ farm or playing baseball with his friends.
Reminds me of my great-Uncle. His father died early, and mom was so poor, Uncle Jack joined the US Army in 1940 at 17, to get 3 hots, a cot and a sharp-looking uniform.
Was sent to Philippines, was captured on Corregidor, was on Bataan death march, hell ships and wound up at a POW camp in north China, not far from Japan’s infamous Unit 731.
Experienced all that, got back to the USA, and will still barely 22 years old.
I’ve written two novels set during WWII, with one of my characters looking pretty much like that young boy above. Those men have my undying respect and love.
Yes. My mother said Matt Damon of “Saving Private Ryan” looked exactly like the farm boys she saw march off to WWII...and not come back.
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