ABINGDON, Va. — A USS Oklahoma sailor from Virginia who died in the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor has been accounted for, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced.
Seaman First Class (S1c) James W. Holzhauer, 23, of Abingdon, Virginia, was accounted for on May 18, 2018.
According to DPAA, on Dec. 7, 1941, Holzhauer was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was anchored at Fort Island, Pearl Harbor. The ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft and sustained multiple torpedo hits. The battleship capsized and 429 crewmen died.
In September 1947, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) were tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater. They 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 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 S1c Holzhauer.
In 2015, the DPAA exhumed the unknown remains from the USS Oklahoma. Holzhauer's remains were eventually identified using anthropological, along with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Holzhauer's name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with other servicemen who are missing from WWII. The DPAA said a rosette will be placed next to his name, indicating that he is now accounted for.
Holzhauer will be buried on May 20, 2024, in the Punchbowl.
