A vow for 'no more unknowns'

At the USS Oklahoma Memorial on Ford Island, 429 white markers represent each of the sailors killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Each marble marker — a tall, thin, white pillar — contains a crew member’s name, rating and rank. Together, they represent each sailor standing at attention, manning the USS Oklahoma one last time.

“This tribute is a lasting memorial to the sailors, to the survivors, the families and it is to remind all of us that history shall not be rewritten because on Dec. 7, 1941, the Oklahoma with 429 sailors perished with the second highest loss of life,” said retired Rear Admiral Greg Slavonic, co-chairman of the USS Oklahoma Memorial.

“Ed Vezey was the conscience of our committee,” said Slavonic of one of the USS Oklahoma survivors who played an instrumental role in the memorial project. “He helped us maintain us true north. He helped us maintain why we are a committee and the importance of his shipmates, the survivors of the USS Oklahoma.”

Rebekah Vezey, Ed’s granddaughter, thanked the remaining Oklahoma and World War II survivors for their service, who were among the hundreds of people at the ninth annual Oklahoma Memorial ceremony.

“He is usually the one standing here, delivering a didactic and inspiring message,” she said. “I would ask him, ‘Grandpa, did you write your speech yet?’ And he would say, ‘Oh, Bec. It’s all right here,’” she said, pointing to her heart.

Rebekah recalled when she accompanied her grandfather on a visit to the memorial in 2013.

“He walked through with a look of fury and hatred in his eyes,” she said. “That following year when we would discuss love and forgiveness, I would bring up Pearl. The very next year I saw him make the memory walk at the Punchbowl. He told me, ‘I am starting to learn to shed tears of pure beauty, rather than hate.’ I thought surely if this man can forgive the tragic events of Dec. 7, then surely I can love a little more. Surely, I can look for the good in others, even if the grace extended is unmerited. Ed Vezey taught me that.”

Oklahoma suffered the second largest death toll from the Dec. 7 attack, behind only the 1,177 killed aboard Arizona. Of the 429 killed on Oklahoma, the remains of 388 could not be identified at the time. But now, the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is making progress in identifying those remains.

Brigadier General Mark Spindler, DPAA deputy director, said he was personally moved when he first visited the memorial. “We will remember the men of the Oklahoma,” he said. “We will remember this day. And we will honor them.”

Spindler said that “our nation is committed to honoring the fallen and their families,” vowing to restore the identities of those still listed as unidentified.

In the past year, the DPAA made identifying the unknown Oklahoma sailors a priority. Since then, the DPAA has used DNA and other advanced technology to identify 72 remains from the Oklahoma.

“We are more than optimistic that we will be able to identify nearly all of them within five years,” Spindler said. “The Oklahoma project has allowed us to refine and streamline many of our scientific protocols, becoming invaluable in speeding up our identification time and dramatically increasing the number of identifications made in a given year.”

DPAA has reached out to the next of kin of the 72 who have thus far been identified.

“They have been returned to the care of their families and probably most importantly are no longer known only to God,” Spindler said. “Most pointedly what the Oklahoma project has demonstrated is that there are no longer unknowns. That advancements in science, coupled with an energized commitment in our government, uphold the sacred creed that we will leave no one behind has resulted in a celebrated time in which we can say with great confidence that they are no longer unknowns, laying on these fields of honor.

“Let me say, one more time: No more unknowns.”