DNA will help identify some of the remains, but more families are encouraged to participate.
A project aimed at identifying the remains of 85 Navy and Marine servicemembers from USS Arizona is still looking for family members to help complete the mission.
Operation 85 was founded in 2023 to identify the sailors and Marines whose graves were marked “unknown” after their deaths in the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Kevin Kline, a member of Sons of The American Legion Squadron 176 in Springfield, Va., founded Operation 85 after visiting the USS Arizona Memorial in August 2022.
Kline is the great nephew of Robert Edwin Kline, a sailor who was killed Dec. 7, 1941, aboard USS Arizona.
“Like many families, we believed our loved one rested aboard USS Arizona, and we were at peace with that,” Kline said. “Learning that some recovered remains were buried in comingled graves as Unknowns at the Punchbowl introduced a question we hadn’t known to ask: Could my uncle be among them?”
Operation 85 is researching family connections and locating potential DNA donors to support the identification of the unknowns buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl.
Operation 85 became an official partner of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) in August, after helping the DPAA reach the required threshold of DNA samples to begin disinterments.
The first eight caskets are scheduled to be disinterred at the Punchbowl on Dec. 7, followed by a ceremony at Kilo Pier on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Operation 85 emphasized that the USS Arizona and the remains of those still aboard the ship will not be disturbed by the project, which is led by the DPAA.
“These men had names, families and lives before December 7, 1941,” Kline said. “Being buried as unknown should not mean being forgotten. We cannot promise every family an identification. But after 85 years, we can finally help give them a chance for answers.”
For more information: https://ussarizona.navy/.
- Honor & Remembrance