Wesley Vernie Jordan was born May 6, 1918 to William Ferris and Ola Braden Jordan. He died Dec. 7. 1941 and is buried in Barnes City Cemetery, Barnes City, IA. He has a cenotaph in Court 3, Courts of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii and is remembered at the USS Oklahoma Memorial.*
Seaman Jordan served in World War II aboard the USS Oklahoma (BB-37). He died in the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor. Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, his remains were accounted for on July 8, 2018. They were returned to Iowa for burial on May 24, 2019. He was awarded the Purple Heart.
*The memorial's black granite walls suggest the once formidable hull of the Oklahoma. On the black granite wall is the alphabetical list of each sailor and what row his marble standard is in. When the wall is photographed the marble standards can be seen in the reflection. The white marble standards represent its lost sailors and Marines. Each perfectly aligned marble standard symbolizes an individual in pristine white dress uniform, inspired from the naval tradition of ‘manning the rails.' In full dress whites the ship's crew stand at attention along the rails or in the rigging of the ship to display respect and honor. The marble standards of this memorial stand perfectly straight, 'manning the rails' of the Oklahoma, forever.
Sources: ancestry.com; ussoklahoma.com
