WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- The Pentagon said Monday the remains of a sailor killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941 have been returned to his family for burial after having been identified.
The sailor was identified as Fireman Second Class Payton L. Vanderpool Jr., of Cowgill, Mo., one of more than 50 sailors and Marines killed on the battleship USS Pennsylvania.
Vanderpool was aboard the Pennsylvania in dry dock at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941, began.
The ship was hit by a bomb that penetrated the main deck and detonated. The ship was further damaged when a nearby destroyer, the USS Downes, exploded. The Pennsylvania survived Pearl Harbor to earn eight battle stars in World War II.
Vanderpool's remains were buried at the Halawa Naval Cemetery on Oahu on Dec. 9, 1941, listed as "unknown." In September 1947 the remains were disinterred and examined by the Central Identification Laboratory, but the remains could not be identified. The remains were reburied at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, or Punchbowl, in 1949.
In 2001 the laboratory obtained records that suggested the remains might be those of a sailor from the Pennsylvania. The Pentagon said the remains were exhumed in June 2003 and identified in September as those of Vanderpool through skeletal analysis and dental records.
