CENTRAL, S.C. (WSPA) – The search is on to find family members of Sailors whose bodies were buried without names in Hawaii after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Operation 85 is a mission to identify, through DNA, the 85 or more U.S.S Arizona crew members whose graves have been marked as “Unknown” and who lie in a comingled grave.
The 85 are buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, HI.
Congressman Jeff Duncan sent out an email looking for the family members of nine Sailors from South Carolina whose remains have yet to be located and identified because they were in comingled graves in Hawaii.
These are the nine Sailors:
- S1C Henry Lloyd Lee, Conway, S.C.
- CM3C Wayne Alman Lewis, Arcadia, S.C.
- S2C John Morgan Meares, Greenville, S.C.
- S1C Douglas Carlton Moore, Anderson, S.C.
- SF3C James Carlton Moore, Anderson, S.C.
- FC2C James Garland Nations, Pickens, S.C.
- S1C Broadus Franklin West, Simpsonville, S.C.
- S1C Vernon Russell White, Spartanburg, S.C.
- RM3C Jack Herman Williams, Columbia, S.C.
Tom Von Kaenel of the Semper Fi Barn in Six Mile is hosting a remembrance ceremony along with Darol Kubacz, Veteran, US Army- Chairman of the barn for the SC Sailors aboard the U.S.S. Arizona killed in 1941.
It will be on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. to honor these Sailors. Congressman Duncan will give brief remarks.