In my last blog, posted on Pearl Harbor Day, I pointed out the importance of remembering the men and women who sacrificed so much for our freedom.
Little did I know what would appear in the news the very next day. It seems as if several families may now get the closing they have sought for nearly eight decades. Advances in modern forensic science, particularly in DNA reclamation and analysis, have now made it possible to identify some of the service personnel who lost their lives that fateful day.
In an article posted on Fox News, writer Perry Chiaramonte tells us that nearly 2,400 members of the U.S. military were killed in the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. And out of that number, 429 Sailors and Marines were killed on the Battleship USS Oklahoma. It famously capsized after it was struck by several torpedoes during the infamous December 7th, 1941 attack.
It seems that only 35 were identified in the years immediately after the attack. The ship itself was raised in 1942 and remains of the rest were exhumed and found to be unidentifiable. Thereafter, they were interred in graves marked as “Unknown” at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
He goes on to explain that In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency started exhuming nearly 400 sets of such remains after a determination had been made that forensic science and genealogical research from families had advanced to the point that identifications were now possible.
As of December of this year, 186 Sailors and Marines from the Oklahoma who were previously marked as “Unknown” have now been successfully identified!
I praise the Lord that this has now unfolded. If at all possible, not one single one of these individuals deserves to go unidentified. Hollywood CGI notwithstanding, one cannot begin to imagine what all they went through! I am confident that each and every individual who perished that fateful day did his (or her) best in their moment of destiny!
They fought hard; they gave all they had; and they died gloriously in defense of this great nation! And they now deserve the recognition they have been deprived of for so long!
At the same time, I am reminded in this that there are a great many more untold deeds of bravery and valor! The men and women who died at Pearl Harbor are not alone. All throughout history, innumerable individuals have given their all for a greater cause and the good of their fellow man, only to have their deeds and their names go unrecorded by posterity.
For this reason, I cannot wait till that day in Heaven when the books are finally opened and the deeds of all such heroes are finally made known. No doubt, on that day, we will finally be able to say: “Now we know!”
STORY SOURCE: https://www.foxnews.com/us/pearl-harbor-sailors-finally-laid-to-rest-77-years-later-thanks-to-dna-testing.
SEE ALSO: Revelation 20:11-15.
Little did I know what would appear in the news the very next day. It seems as if several families may now get the closing they have sought for nearly eight decades. Advances in modern forensic science, particularly in DNA reclamation and analysis, have now made it possible to identify some of the service personnel who lost their lives that fateful day.
In an article posted on Fox News, writer Perry Chiaramonte tells us that nearly 2,400 members of the U.S. military were killed in the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. And out of that number, 429 Sailors and Marines were killed on the Battleship USS Oklahoma. It famously capsized after it was struck by several torpedoes during the infamous December 7th, 1941 attack.
It seems that only 35 were identified in the years immediately after the attack. The ship itself was raised in 1942 and remains of the rest were exhumed and found to be unidentifiable. Thereafter, they were interred in graves marked as “Unknown” at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.
He goes on to explain that In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency started exhuming nearly 400 sets of such remains after a determination had been made that forensic science and genealogical research from families had advanced to the point that identifications were now possible.
As of December of this year, 186 Sailors and Marines from the Oklahoma who were previously marked as “Unknown” have now been successfully identified!
I praise the Lord that this has now unfolded. If at all possible, not one single one of these individuals deserves to go unidentified. Hollywood CGI notwithstanding, one cannot begin to imagine what all they went through! I am confident that each and every individual who perished that fateful day did his (or her) best in their moment of destiny!
They fought hard; they gave all they had; and they died gloriously in defense of this great nation! And they now deserve the recognition they have been deprived of for so long!
At the same time, I am reminded in this that there are a great many more untold deeds of bravery and valor! The men and women who died at Pearl Harbor are not alone. All throughout history, innumerable individuals have given their all for a greater cause and the good of their fellow man, only to have their deeds and their names go unrecorded by posterity.
For this reason, I cannot wait till that day in Heaven when the books are finally opened and the deeds of all such heroes are finally made known. No doubt, on that day, we will finally be able to say: “Now we know!”
STORY SOURCE: https://www.foxnews.com/us/pearl-harbor-sailors-finally-laid-to-rest-77-years-later-thanks-to-dna-testing.
SEE ALSO: Revelation 20:11-15.