The remains of a Marine from Burbank who was killed during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor have been identified, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced.
The body of Walter Collier, 20, of Burbank was accounted for on May 25, but his family only recently received a full briefing.
Collier was killed on Dec. 7, 1941, when he was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, moored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, according to a DPAA statement. The ship sustained multiple torpedo hits and capsized, resulting in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Collier.
From Dec. 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, who were buried at the Halawa and Nu'uanu Cemeteries. In 1947, the American Graves Registration Service disinterred the remains of American casualties from the cemeteries, and transferred them to a lab that was only able to confirm the identities of 35 men from the ship. In 1949, a military board classified those remains as "non-recoverable," and they were transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
It wasn't until June 2015 that DPAA exhumed the unknowns from that cemetery, to use anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis, and eventually identified Collier. Earlier this year, the body of U.S. Navy sailor from Stockton also killed in the attack was identified as Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Charles E. Hudson.
Collier will be buried on Dec. 8, 2021, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.-Los Angeles Patch
The body of Walter Collier, 20, of Burbank was accounted for on May 25, but his family only recently received a full briefing.
Collier was killed on Dec. 7, 1941, when he was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, moored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, according to a DPAA statement. The ship sustained multiple torpedo hits and capsized, resulting in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Collier.
From Dec. 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, who were buried at the Halawa and Nu'uanu Cemeteries. In 1947, the American Graves Registration Service disinterred the remains of American casualties from the cemeteries, and transferred them to a lab that was only able to confirm the identities of 35 men from the ship. In 1949, a military board classified those remains as "non-recoverable," and they were transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
It wasn't until June 2015 that DPAA exhumed the unknowns from that cemetery, to use anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis, and eventually identified Collier. Earlier this year, the body of U.S. Navy sailor from Stockton also killed in the attack was identified as Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Charles E. Hudson.
Collier will be buried on Dec. 8, 2021, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.-Los Angeles Patch
The remains of a Marine from Burbank who was killed during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor have been identified, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced.
The body of Walter Collier, 20, of Burbank was accounted for on May 25, but his family only recently received a full briefing.
Collier was killed on Dec. 7, 1941, when he was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, moored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, according to a DPAA statement. The ship sustained multiple torpedo hits and capsized, resulting in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Collier.
From Dec. 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, who were buried at the Halawa and Nu'uanu Cemeteries. In 1947, the American Graves Registration Service disinterred the remains of American casualties from the cemeteries, and transferred them to a lab that was only able to confirm the identities of 35 men from the ship. In 1949, a military board classified those remains as "non-recoverable," and they were transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
It wasn't until June 2015 that DPAA exhumed the unknowns from that cemetery, to use anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis, and eventually identified Collier. Earlier this year, the body of U.S. Navy sailor from Stockton also killed in the attack was identified as Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Charles E. Hudson.
Collier will be buried on Dec. 8, 2021, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.-Los Angeles Patch
The body of Walter Collier, 20, of Burbank was accounted for on May 25, but his family only recently received a full briefing.
Collier was killed on Dec. 7, 1941, when he was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, moored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, according to a DPAA statement. The ship sustained multiple torpedo hits and capsized, resulting in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Collier.
From Dec. 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, who were buried at the Halawa and Nu'uanu Cemeteries. In 1947, the American Graves Registration Service disinterred the remains of American casualties from the cemeteries, and transferred them to a lab that was only able to confirm the identities of 35 men from the ship. In 1949, a military board classified those remains as "non-recoverable," and they were transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
It wasn't until June 2015 that DPAA exhumed the unknowns from that cemetery, to use anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis, and eventually identified Collier. Earlier this year, the body of U.S. Navy sailor from Stockton also killed in the attack was identified as Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Charles E. Hudson.
Collier will be buried on Dec. 8, 2021, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.-Los Angeles Patch
Other Records
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
