Additional remains of Pearl Harbor casualty Edwin Hopkins of Swanzey flown to NH

Paul Feely, The New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester
·2 min read
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Sep. 12—Police officers from Londonderry and Manchester were on hand at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport late last week to escort additional remains of 3rd Class Fireman Edwin C. Hopkins of Swanzey, killed while serving aboard the USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The remains were flown to New Hampshire on a Southwest Airlines flight.

"Fireman 3rd Class Edwin C. Hopkins, thank you for serving our country and making the ultimate sacrifice so we can remain free," reads a social media post from Londonderry and Manchester police. "May you rest in peace."

The remains were identified and matched with Hopkins using DNA technology. Remains previously identified as belonging to Hopkins were returned to New Hampshire in 2016. A funeral service was held at the Keene Dillant-Hopkins Airport, which was named in part for Hopkins, the first Swanzey resident to give his life for his country.

Following the funeral service, Hopkins was taken to Woodland Cemetery in Keene to be buried alongside his parents, Frank and Alice Hopkins.

Edwin Hopkins died when the battleship USS Oklahoma was hit by nine torpedoes and capsized at anchor. Hopkins was one of 429 crewmen killed in the attack. No single vessel at Pearl Harbor, with the exception of the USS Arizona, suffered as many fatalities.

From December 1941 to June 1944, U.S. Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu'uanu Cemeteries.

In September 1947, while working to recover and identify fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks in Honolulu.

Laboratory staff could only confirm the identities of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. The AGRS buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Hopkins.

In April 2015, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a policy memorandum directing the disinterment of unknowns associated with the USS Oklahoma. On June 15, 2015, military personnel began exhuming remains from the Punchbowl for analysis.

Scientists from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial DNA analysis to positively identify Hopkins' skull.

Criteria for identification include research, family reference samples for DNA comparison and medical and dental records of the service members.