Photo courtesy of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). The remains of Michigan sailor, Seaman 1st Class (S1), Wesley E. Graham, who was killed in action during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, will finally come home and be laid to final rest in Berrien County, in Oct.

WASHINGTON — A sailor from Michigan who was killed in action on Dec. 7, 1941, during the Japanese aerial attack on Pearl Harbor, is finally returning home for burial, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

According to the DPAA, Navy Seaman 1st Class Wesley E. (Ernest) Graham, 21, of Watervliet, Michigan, was accounted for on June 5, 2020. Watervliet is located in northeastern Berrien County. Graham was born on March 6, 1920.

The DPAA stated in a Sept. 7, 2021 release that on Dec. 7, 1941, Graham was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, BB-37, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Graham.

The DPAAis an agency within the United States Department of Defense whose mission is to recover U.S. military personnel who are listed as prisoners of war or missing in action from designated past conflicts, from countries around the world.

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

In Sept. 1947, members of the American Graves Registration (AGRS) were tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater of Operations. U.S. casualties were disinterred from the two cemeteries and transferred to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the identifications of 35 men from the Oklahoma at that time, the release states. The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Graham. Then, between June and November 2015, DPAA personnel exhumed the USS Oklahoma Unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.

To identify Graham’s remains, scientists from DPAA anthropological analysis (were called in). Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.

Graham’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

The Punchbowl Cemetery is a national cemetery located at Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii. It serves as a memorial to honor those men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces, and those who have given their lives in doing so. It is administered by the National Cemetery Administration of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Millions of visitors visit the cemetery each year, and it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Hawaii.

Graham’s younger brother, Ernest O. Graham, born in 1924, was also in the Navy, and both assigned to the same ship. Ernest, however, was transferred before the Dec. 7 attack, and was home on a 10-day furlough, according to www.findagrave.com/memorial/56131777/wesley-graham.

Graham will be buried in Augusta, Michigan on Oct. 27, 2021. Augusta is a village in Kalamazoo County.

The DPAA release states that Graham will be buried in Augusta, Michigan on Oct. 27.

DPAA stated it is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of the Navy for their partnership in this mission.