WANAMIE, Pa. (AP) - The remains of a U.S. Navy seaman killed in the attack at Pearl Harbor have been identified and will be returned to his Pennsylvania hometown.
The Defense Department’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency says Navy Seaman 1st Class Edward Slapikas will be buried with full military honors on June 2 in Wanamie, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia.
Slapikas, then 26, was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, which was moored in Pearl Harbor when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft on Dec. 7, 1941.
The battleship capsized and 429 crewmen, including Slapikas, died.
Navy personnel recovered the crew’s remains, which were buried at cemeteries in Hawaii.
They were disinterred in 1947 with hopes of identifying them; those unidentified were reburied.
In 2015, those remains were reanalyzed, and Slapikas’ remains were identified.
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