Release
No: 18-136 Sept. 10, 2018
WASHINGTON
— The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)
announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman,
killed during World War II have been identified as those
of Navy Fireman 3rd Class Robert J. Bennett. Bennett, 18,
born in Monona, Iowa, was accounted for on August 13.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Bennett was assigned to the battleship
USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl
Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft.
The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which
caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship
resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Bennett.
From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered
the remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently
interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries.
In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying
fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of
the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS)
disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two
cemeteries and transferred them to the Central
Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. The
laboratory staff was only able to confirm the
identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that
time. The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified
remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of
the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In October 1949, a military board classified those who
could not be identified as non-recoverable, including
Bennett.
In April 2015, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a
policy memorandum directing the disinterment of unknowns
associated with the USS Oklahoma. On June 15, 2015, DPAA
personnel began exhuming the remains from the Punchbowl
for analysis.
To identify Bennett’s remains, scientists from DPAA
and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome DNA (Y-STR)
analysis, anthropological analysis, as well as
circumstantial evidence.
DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs
for their partnership in this mission.
Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II,
more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there
are 72,866 (approximately 26,000 are assessed as
possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World
War II. Bennett’s name is recorded on the Walls of
the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who
are missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to
his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
For information on funeral services, contact the Navy
Service Casualty office.
For additional information on the Defense
Department’s mission to account for missing
Americans who went missing while serving our country,
visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social
media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa
~source: news release from Defense
POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), September 10, 2018
~contributed by Jym Montgomery
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