A federal agency said the remains of two sailors missing since the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor had been identified.
Box O.F.C. Second Class Claude Ralph Garcia died at the age of 25 while serving as a ship fitter on the USS West Virginia when Japanese forces attacked a US naval base near Honolulu. Box O.F.C. Keith Warren Tipsward, 1st Class, died on the same battleship at the age of 27.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounts Agency, which is responsible for missing defense personnel, recently announced a positive identification.
Garcia was born on April 27, 1916, in Ventura County, California, to father Rafael Garcia, according to Honor States, an organization that tracks the lives and achievements of fallen military members.
According to VC Star, he graduated from Ventura High School in 1933 and attended community college before enlisting in the Navy, stating that local news reports from 1943 described García as Ventura’s First World War. Casualties were estimated in the U.S., and his memorial service was anticipated. More than 300 bereaved.
Tipsward was born on June 21, 1914, in Effingham County, Illinois, according to Honor States, to Franklin Wiley Tipsward and Laura Maybelle Dottie.
Garcia and Tipsward’s remains were buried along with other unidentified bodies from the battleship USS West Virginia at the National Memorial Cemetery in the Pacific, also known as Punchbowl Cemetery, the accounting agency said in a news release.
The agency said bombs and torpedoes sank the ship during the attack on Pearl Harbor, killing 106 crew members. A total of 2,403 people were killed in this attack.
Many of the USS West Virginia casualties were largely identified six years after the attack. According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounts Agency, several others were re-buried until 2017, when 35 coffins were extracted and sent to the laboratory for identification using methods such as mitochondrial DNA, dental analysis, anthropometric analysis and physical evidence. Had gone.
Of the original 106 casualties, 25 were unknown as of 2016. Others recently identified include Navy Fireman Harold K. Costill, who died at the age of 18, and seaman John R. Melton, who died at the age of 23.
The agency said nearly 2,000 dead members of the US military have been identified since the effort began in the 1970s.
“At the DPAA, it is our sacred duty to find, account for, and bring home these service members who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Sgt. Agency spokesman First Class Sean Everett told VC Star.