The remains of a U.S. Navy sailor killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor have been identified more than 80 years later through DNA testing, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced.
Mess Attendant 3rd Class David Walker was 19 at the time of his death.
On Dec. 7, 1941, a day that lives eternally in infamy in American history, Walker was assigned to the USS California, a battleship moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor.
The ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft and sustained multiple torpedo and bomb hits, which caused the ship to catch fire and slowly flood. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 103 crewmen, including Walker.
The mortal remains of Navy personnel were initially recovered from Dec. 1941 to April 1942 and interred in the Halawa and Nu'uanu Cemeteries.
Members of the American Graves Registration Service were tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater in Sept. 1947.
They subsequently began disinterring the remains of U.S. casualties from two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks.
In addition to the 42 casualties from the USS California initially identified after the attack, the laboratory was able to confirm the identifications of 39 men from the ship at that time.
In Oct. 1949, a military board classified the remains of the remaining crew members, including Walker, as non-recoverable.
But in 2018, DPAA personnel exhumed then-unidentified reamins from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, for analysis. To identify Walker's remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological and dental analysis.
Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis to identify the fallen.
Walker will be buried on September 5, 2024, in Arlington National Cemetery.
For family and funeral information, contact the Navy Service Casualty office at 800-443-9298.
