Remains of KY Sailor at Pearl Harbor Identified

The remains of a sailor killed at Pearl Harbor have been identified as those of a Kentucky soldier.

WYMT-TV reports military officials made the announcement Thursday. Seaman Second Class Hubert Hall, 20, was one of 428 crewmen on the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941 when it was struck by Japanese torpedoes. It took several years to recover and bury the remains.

The military identified 35 of them in 1947, but new forensic technology became available in 2015 and medical examiners used DNA analysis, dental records and circumstantial evidence to finally identify Hall.

The remains are now being sent to his family. He's set to be buried next year at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, where his name was recorded on the Walls of the Missing.