Identifying Unknown Soldiers | Ghosts of Pearl Harbor

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NARRATOR: Of the 429 men who died on the battleship "USS Oklahoma," only 35 were identified in the years immediately following the attack. The rest were buried in graves marked "Unknown." But almost 75 years later, one of these unknown men was given a name.

FAYE HOPKINS BOORE: My brother's the oldest so he got the phone call. And he called me and couldn't get words out, couldn't speak. And I knew it was something important. And I thought something happened to somebody. I said, just spit it out, just tell me. And then he said, Uncle Ed's been identified.

NARRATOR: There is no statute of limitations on honoring anyone who died for their country. The oil that shrouded Pearl Harbor after the attack became crucial in identifying unknown remains.

CAPT. EDWARD REEDY: The fuel oil has acted as a preservative for the DNA in these bones. And we've been able to get very high-quality DNA from these skeletal remains, which has actually worked in our favor. If we have the right family reference samples, we can successfully identify all of the unknowns that we currently have recovered. People often ask, is the unknown soldier a thing of the past. And the answer to that is yes. I think it's important to account for an individual, to bring that individual home, and to give them a name. It's one of my moral and ethical imperatives that no one should be buried without a name.

NARRATOR: On October 15, 2016, Faye Hopkins Boore was finally able to lay her uncle to rest in his hometown.