Springfield sailor killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941 to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery
A sailor from Springfield killed in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor will now be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Navy Seaman First Class James R. Ward, 20, was on the U.S.S. Oklahoma when a Japanese aircraft attacked the ship on December 7, 1941.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor and accounted for on August 19, 2021.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) says as the order was given to abandon ship, Ward sacrificed his own life by holding a flashlight so the turret crew could escape.
Navy personnel recovered the crews’ remains during the 1940s and buried them at a cemetery in Hawaii.
The DPAA has been exhuming and identifying the remains previously labeled as “non-recoverable.”
Ward will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on a date yet to be announced.
For more information on DPAA, visit this website.
