Sailor killed in Pearl Harbor attack no longer ‘unknown’
COURTESY U.S. NAVY
Navy Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Vernon T. Luke, 43, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, was identified recently and will be buried with full military honors at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
A 43-year-old sailor who served in World War I, died in the Pearl Harbor attacks on Dec. 7, 1941, and was listed as an “unknown” at Punchbowl cemetery, will be reburied at the Oahu cemetery on Wednesday after an identification was made.
Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke, a crew member on the USS Oklahoma, is the first to be buried after 388 unknowns from the battleship were disinterred. Most of the sailors and Marines were exhumed last year from Punchbowl.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, with a lab in Hawaii, is trying to fulfill a congressional mandate to reach 200 IDs a year and the disinterments from the Oklahoma — as well as the recovery of other unknowns from Punchbowl — will help it reach that goal. The Pentagon agency searches for, recovers and identifies Americans missing from the nation’s past wars.
A new obituary published in the Green Bay (Wis.) Press-Gazette Sunday said Luke was born in Green Bay on Aug. 22, 1898, and was the oldest of five children.
“At 17, his father signed him into the Army during World War I,” the obituary states. “He spent a year in the Army and seven years in the Navy during and after that war.”
Luke was married and operated a gas station in Turlock, Calif., when he was called to active duty as a Naval reservist about 18 months prior to his death on Dec. 7.
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The machinist’s mate will finally get his own grave marker at Punchbowl 74 years after his death.
The Navy is flying Luke’s niece, Lee Ann Michalske of Sturgeon Bay, Wis., to Hawaii by the Navy for the burial, WBAY-TV in Green Bay reported.
“For my family to finally bury my uncle and know where he is and have a (gravemarker) on him, it just, it just seems like that’s the way it should be. This is really personal and I think it will be a little more moving than I hope because I easily cry,” she told the station.
The funeral service will be at 11:30 a.m. at Punchbowl.
To identify Luke, DPAA scientists used circumstantial evidence and laboratory analysis including dental comparisons to match Luke’s records, the military said.
7 responses to “Sailor killed in Pearl Harbor attack no longer ‘unknown’”
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No comments? Omg. Shows the kind of crowd that gravitates to various articles. William Cole, thank you for writing the front page story on Christmas Day, I believe it was 2012 or 2013, about the brother and three sisters who sort of went missing during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. My mom, the middle sister of the three, passed away in November 2013. The eldest of the three sisters, living on Kauai, passed away in January 2016, just a few months ago. My favorite auntie, the youngest of the four siblings and the only one of the four still living, is 83 years old and lives in Wahiawa. My auntie is the grandmother of Alyssa Tobita. Well enough of that. Thanks for your services regarding reporting on the military. My grandfather served in World War I, while my Dad served in The Korean War. Now all of my elder descendants are gone, with my Mom and Dad together in Punchbowl and my Grandfather and my Grandmother also in Punchbowl.
Let’s not ever forget those who gave their lives! Thank you from a grateful nation!
Rest in peace, Sailor. Thank you for your ultimate sacrifice for us all.
Welcome home Brother!
Welcome home, sailor. We have not forgotten.
Was the burial today? Hope the SA covered it.
Thank you for your service and ultimate sacrifice. May you rest in peace and your family find comfort in having some closure.