Sailor who died with 428 crewmates in Pearl Harbor attack finally accounted for

A United States Navy seaman who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor has been accounted for decades after his death, military officials said Thursday. 

U.S. Navy Seaman 2nd Class John C. Auld, 23, was from Newcastle, England, according to a news release from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, a battleship moored at Pearl Harbor, in 1941. 

On Dec. 7, Auld was aboard the ship when Japanese pilots attacked Pearl Harbor. During the attack, the USS Oklahoma took multiple torpedo hits and capsized just 12 minutes after it was first hit, according to the Department of Defense. Four hundred and twenty-nine crewmembers, including Auld, died. Only 32 crewmembers survived, thanks to what the Department of Defense called “acts of valor” by other military members. It was the greatest death toll from any ship that day, other than the USS Arizona, which lost over 1,100 seamen. 

It took three years for Navy personnel to recover the crew’s remains. The remains were interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries on Oahu in 1944, and in 1947, military officials began working to identify the remains. The remains were disinterred and transferred to a laboratory, where 35 sets of remains were identified. 

The unidentified remains were buried again at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. The names of those who could not be identified were recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the cemetery. 

Between June and November 2015, those remains were again exhumed and analyzed at the DPAA’s laboratory. Scientists used anthropological analysis, DNA analysis, and circumstantial and material evidence to make the identification. In 2018, Auld’s remains were identified. However, it wasn’t until recently that the DPAA was made aware that Auld’s family had been notified of his identification, which led to a delay in the announcement. 

The Department of Defense announced earlier this month that the remains of all crewmembers who died aboard the USS Oklahoma have been identified. Pearl Harbor survivors will commemorate the 83rd anniversary of the attack on Saturday.

Now that Auld has been identified, a rosette will be placed next to his name at the Courts of the Missing. He was buried in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Friday morning, according to the DPAA and a funeral notice shared online.