The remains of two Navy sailors killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor have been identified 80 years later.
George Gilbert, 20, and Wilbur F. Newton, 29, were accounted for when their remains were identified as two of the unidentified 46 plots at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific known as Punchbowl, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Tuesday.
Newton was accounted for on Oct. 12, 2021, and Gilbert was identified on Aug. 24, 2020.
Gilbert, a fire control man, and Newton, a seaman, were on the USS Oklahoma moored at Ford Island on Dec. 7, 1941, when it sustained several devastating torpedo hits by the Japanese causing it to overturn, resulting in the deaths of 429 crewmen, the agency said.
REMAINS OF WWII PILOT IDENTIFIED AFTER DECADESLONG SEARCH
Between December 1941 and June 1944, Navy officials recovered the remains of the crew and buried them in the Halawa and Nu’uanu cemeteries.
Three years later, the graves were disinterred with the hope of identifying each individual’s remains. The Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks was only able to confirm the identities of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma and buried the remaining 46 unidentified plots.
In 2015, efforts continued to identify the plots without names through dental and anthropological analysis.
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The two, whose names are recorded on the Walls and Courts of the Missing at Punchbowl along with others from World War II, will have rosettes placed next to their names to signify they have been accounted for.
Gilbert’s remains will be buried on June 6, 2022, at Punchbowl and Newton will be buried on May 28, 2022, in Mound City, Missouri.
