I do understand where people think that
you should not disturb a grave but I
think it’s a personal decision for the
family and for our family it was the
right decision
to get him out of there my grandfather
died at Pearl Harbor but it was not
where he needed to be
ready
about the hero at his burial today dead
for eight years I’ve been diligently
trying to get to my grandfather back a
lot of letter-writing a lot of red tape
with the military they just don’t
disinterred graves when I was growing up
I knew very little about him it was a
taboo subject it was very hard for my
mom to talk about and then once I
received all of his belongings I just
found out that he was such a great
person and very loved he was just very
much alive one of his friends from high
school said he was when those guys would
walk down the hall everybody would say
hi he would say hi back he knew
everybody he was class president in all
their plays he didn’t like bullying he
would stick up for people he was just a
kind-hearted person
we know that JC was on his way to the
radio room going on duty at 8 o’clock
up to the radio room and everybody was
either unconscious or flooding it just
chaotic panic
took three people up the ladder that was
going out to safety and then came down a
fourth time and was never seen again
that’s why he received the Purple Heart
and the Navy named two ships after him
the USS England
for someone that meant so much to a
family and to just have them in a grave
marked unknown it’s heartbreaking they
went on a while just in denial maybe he
has amnesia and he’s wandering around
Hawaii somewhere or maybe he’s badly
hurt I think they would have liked to
have had something to bury of his even
if it was just a scholar because then
it’s real
it just wasn’t policy back in those days
to send the partial remains
my great-grandmother would write
periodically to see if anything was ever
discovered this is 1946 you are advised
at the bodies of personnel aboard the
USS Oklahoma were buried in plots in
Palo a naval cemetery at Pearl Harbor
but they were unidentified the Navy
again extends sympathy to you and your
loss
on the way home one day shortly before
the 50th anniversary I would be kind of
nice to get some flowers and flags at
the Pearl Harbor casualties and when I
got there they couldn’t tell me where
the Pearl Harbor cages were buried so I
started walking grave site to grave site
for many months check and record their
records another record finally is able
to figure out where they were buried
there’s a list a Navy Coast Guard Marine
Corps casualties by States and each one
of these gives the name of next akin I
typed in each one of these names one
finger
I wrote letters to DC and finally they
told me politely to go you know where
which I didn’t read this look tell me to
go to fly a kite run which I didn’t
the only laughs spent a long time
when they first were doing the
identification processes back in the 40s
all they had was dental records to work
with now we have DNA that we can use and
so my sister and myself and my cousin
Katie we all gave the Navy our DNA
samples and that’s ultimately what
positively identified my grandfather
there will be no more unknown soldiers
and if we have the right family
reference samples we can successfully
identify all of the unknowns that we
currently have recovered from the
Oklahoma as well as other conflicts like
Korea or Southeast Asia no one should be
buried without a name I consider it to
be a moral and ethical imperative to
give every unknown that we’ve uncovered
an individual name and to send them home
where they belong
when my grandfather arrived at the
airport it really hit me that that this
is all really happening
they overtook me now and it was just a
wave of relief in a way and a little
sadness but also happy that it was all
happening
I feel symbolically its closure for my
great grandparents and my great aunt
they didn’t have closure they just
continued their life with this great
loss and I don’t think they really
properly dealt with their pain they
didn’t have something to bury they
didn’t have a place to go mourn him they
never had a huge funeral where everybody
gathered and got together and shared
stories the sadness for my family
draped over the generations
unfortunately our mom died in 2002 six
years before we found out about her
father I often wonder what her life
would have been like if he had not died
I know that she struggled with the
heaviness that she was born into that is
why my sister Lisa and I decided to
include her ashes in her father’s grave
as a way to heal the past and bring a
long-awaited closure to our family
there is a story in every grave every
unknown grave has its own personal
emotional story and ours we just are so
grateful that we were able to have our
happy ending
my dog freedom I can’t say he’s a pet
because that’s just it’s not enough
freedom not just changed my life he did
save my life
you should not disturb a grave but I
think it’s a personal decision for the
family and for our family it was the
right decision
to get him out of there my grandfather
died at Pearl Harbor but it was not
where he needed to be
ready
about the hero at his burial today dead
for eight years I’ve been diligently
trying to get to my grandfather back a
lot of letter-writing a lot of red tape
with the military they just don’t
disinterred graves when I was growing up
I knew very little about him it was a
taboo subject it was very hard for my
mom to talk about and then once I
received all of his belongings I just
found out that he was such a great
person and very loved he was just very
much alive one of his friends from high
school said he was when those guys would
walk down the hall everybody would say
hi he would say hi back he knew
everybody he was class president in all
their plays he didn’t like bullying he
would stick up for people he was just a
kind-hearted person
we know that JC was on his way to the
radio room going on duty at 8 o’clock
up to the radio room and everybody was
either unconscious or flooding it just
chaotic panic
took three people up the ladder that was
going out to safety and then came down a
fourth time and was never seen again
that’s why he received the Purple Heart
and the Navy named two ships after him
the USS England
for someone that meant so much to a
family and to just have them in a grave
marked unknown it’s heartbreaking they
went on a while just in denial maybe he
has amnesia and he’s wandering around
Hawaii somewhere or maybe he’s badly
hurt I think they would have liked to
have had something to bury of his even
if it was just a scholar because then
it’s real
it just wasn’t policy back in those days
to send the partial remains
my great-grandmother would write
periodically to see if anything was ever
discovered this is 1946 you are advised
at the bodies of personnel aboard the
USS Oklahoma were buried in plots in
Palo a naval cemetery at Pearl Harbor
but they were unidentified the Navy
again extends sympathy to you and your
loss
on the way home one day shortly before
the 50th anniversary I would be kind of
nice to get some flowers and flags at
the Pearl Harbor casualties and when I
got there they couldn’t tell me where
the Pearl Harbor cages were buried so I
started walking grave site to grave site
for many months check and record their
records another record finally is able
to figure out where they were buried
there’s a list a Navy Coast Guard Marine
Corps casualties by States and each one
of these gives the name of next akin I
typed in each one of these names one
finger
I wrote letters to DC and finally they
told me politely to go you know where
which I didn’t read this look tell me to
go to fly a kite run which I didn’t
the only laughs spent a long time
when they first were doing the
identification processes back in the 40s
all they had was dental records to work
with now we have DNA that we can use and
so my sister and myself and my cousin
Katie we all gave the Navy our DNA
samples and that’s ultimately what
positively identified my grandfather
there will be no more unknown soldiers
and if we have the right family
reference samples we can successfully
identify all of the unknowns that we
currently have recovered from the
Oklahoma as well as other conflicts like
Korea or Southeast Asia no one should be
buried without a name I consider it to
be a moral and ethical imperative to
give every unknown that we’ve uncovered
an individual name and to send them home
where they belong
when my grandfather arrived at the
airport it really hit me that that this
is all really happening
they overtook me now and it was just a
wave of relief in a way and a little
sadness but also happy that it was all
happening
I feel symbolically its closure for my
great grandparents and my great aunt
they didn’t have closure they just
continued their life with this great
loss and I don’t think they really
properly dealt with their pain they
didn’t have something to bury they
didn’t have a place to go mourn him they
never had a huge funeral where everybody
gathered and got together and shared
stories the sadness for my family
draped over the generations
unfortunately our mom died in 2002 six
years before we found out about her
father I often wonder what her life
would have been like if he had not died
I know that she struggled with the
heaviness that she was born into that is
why my sister Lisa and I decided to
include her ashes in her father’s grave
as a way to heal the past and bring a
long-awaited closure to our family
there is a story in every grave every
unknown grave has its own personal
emotional story and ours we just are so
grateful that we were able to have our
happy ending
my dog freedom I can’t say he’s a pet
because that’s just it’s not enough
freedom not just changed my life he did
save my life
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