Pearl Harbor Sailor Royle Luker Identified 82 Years After 1941 USS West Virginia Death
Updated
Updated · Fox News · May 25
Pearl Harbor Sailor Royle Luker Identified 82 Years After 1941 USS West Virginia Death
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · May 25
Royle Bradford Luker, a 17-year-old Navy fireman killed at Pearl Harbor, has been officially identified and will be buried with full military honors in Arkansas on May 30.
DNA from living relatives and modern forensic testing confirmed his identity after his remains were exhumed from previously unidentified burials at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Luker was among 106 USS West Virginia crewmen killed on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese torpedoes struck the battleship at Ford Island and it sank to the harbor floor.
Officially accounted for on May 29, 2024, Luker had long been listed as killed in action and memorialized on the Courts of the Missing before his identification returned him to his family.
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