Remains of Navy sailor killed at Pearl Harbor identified after nearly eight decades

[Boats]

Remains of Navy sailor killed at Pearl Harbor identified after nearly eight decades
By: Kaelan Deese, Breaking News Reporter & Washington Examiner 06-05-21
Re: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...bor-identified

The remains of a Navy sailor from Illinois killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 have been identified after nearly 80 years of being missing, according to the Defense Department.

Navy Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class Leslie Delles's remains were identified Feb. 12, according to a June 1 statement from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Delles was assigned to the USS Oklahoma just before the fatal attack on Pearl Harbor.

He and his twin brother, Lester Delles, joined the Navy on the same day in March 1940 to learn a different trade, according to a Tribune News Service report cited by Stripes.com.

Old photo: https://mediadc.brightspotcdn.com/di...c%2Fdelles.jpg

Delles died at 21 years old on the fateful day of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack. The USS Oklahoma was struck by a torpedo blow from a Japanese aircraft.

Delles died along with 429 other crewmen. Navy personnel recovered the remains of crewmen from December 1941 to June 1944 and placed them in the Halawa and Nu’uanu cemeteries.

The remains were disinterred by the American Graves Registration Service in September 1947 and were later moved to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks for proper identification.

“The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time,” according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency's release.

In 2015, scientists from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency used anthropological analysis, and scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA analysis to identify Delles’s remains.

Delles's name was recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, which is also known as the Punchbowl.

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Personal note: Wow! All I can say is "Welcome Home Mate" and my respects to his family and friends.
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Boats