Sailor who died with 428 crewmates in Pearl Harbor attack finally accounted for

A United States Navy seaman who died throughout the assault on Pearl Harbor has been accounted for many years after his demise, navy officers mentioned Thursday. 

U.S. Navy Seaman 2nd Class John C. Auld, 23, was from Newcastle, England, in line with a information launch from the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company. He was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, a battleship moored at Pearl Harbor, in 1941. 

On Dec. 7, Auld was aboard the ship when Japanese pilots attacked Pearl Harbor. In the course of the assault, the USS Oklahoma took a number of torpedo hits and capsized simply 12 minutes after it was first hit, according to the Department of Defense. 4 hundred and twenty-nine crewmembers, together with Auld, died. Solely 32 crewmembers survived, because of what the Division of Protection referred to as “acts of valor” by different navy members. It was the best demise toll from any ship that day, aside from the USS Arizona, which misplaced over 1,100 seamen. 

It took three years for Navy personnel to get well the crew’s stays. The stays had been interred within the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries on Oahu in 1944, and in 1947, navy officers started working to establish the stays. The stays had been disinterred and transferred to a laboratory, the place 35 units of stays had been recognized. 

The unidentified stays had been buried once more on the Nationwide Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. The names of those that couldn’t be recognized had been recorded on the Courts of the Lacking on the cemetery. 

Between June and November 2015, these stays had been once more exhumed and analyzed on the DPAA’s laboratory. Scientists used anthropological evaluation, DNA evaluation, and circumstantial and materials proof to make the identification. In 2018, Auld’s stays had been recognized. Nevertheless, it wasn’t till not too long ago that the DPAA was made conscious that Auld’s household had been notified of his identification, which led to a delay within the announcement. 

The Division of Protection announced earlier this month that the stays of all crewmembers who died aboard the USS Oklahoma have been recognized. Pearl Harbor survivors will commemorate the 83rd anniversary of the assault on Saturday.

Now that Auld has been recognized, a rosette can be positioned subsequent to his identify on the Courts of the Lacking. He was buried in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Friday morning, in line with the DPAA and a funeral notice shared online.