Pentagon identified sailors killed in Pearl Harbor attack

[Boats]

Pentagon identified sailors killed in Pearl Harbor attack
By: Mike Glenn - Washington Times News - 03-14-21
Re: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...d-pearl-harbo/

Photo link: https://www.washingtontimes.com/mult...ials_28193jpg/
FILE - In this May 24, 1943 file photo, the capsized battleship USS Oklahoma is lifted out of the water at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 75 years after nearly 2,400 members of the U.S. military were killed in the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, some who died on Dec. 7, 1941, are finally being laid to rest in cemeteries across the United States. After DNA allowed the men to be identified and returned home, their remains are being buried in places such as Traer, Iowa and Ontonagon, Michigan. (AP Photo, File)

The Department of Defense has officially accounted for two U.S. Navy sailors whose battleship was sunk during the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii that resulted in America’s entry into World War II.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recently confirmed that they had identified Navy Seaman 2nd Class Michael Malek, 17, and Navy Signalman 3rd Class Austin H. Hesler, 21, who had been assigned to the battleship Oklahoma at the time of the attack.

Along with seven other battleships - Arizona, Maryland, California, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia - the Oklahoma was moored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Several torpedoes struck the Oklahoma, causing the battleship to quickly capsize.

Almost 430 sailors and Marines aboard the Oklahoma, including Petty Officer Malek and Hesler, were killed in the attack. Father Aloysius Schmitt, a Catholic priest aboard the Oklahoma, was the first American chaplain to be killed in World War II.

More than 380 unidentified remains were later interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific until they could be scientifically accounted for.

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Personal note: To all those that died on that day - who had no warning - but fought back as best they could - within the time frame of that attack. It goes to say that they will never be forgotten - as are "all our military men and women" who've died during that war and all others since. My sincere respects go out to "all" the Families of the fallen - in all the War's or Conflict's to date. God Bless Them All.
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Boats (USN 63-75)