The U.S. Defense Department and its Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency have identified the remains of a Wichita sailor killed during World War II.

Navy Ship’s Cook 3rd Class Robert Goodwin, 20, was accounted for in November, 2020.  He was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor.   The Oklahoma was attacked by Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941 and suffered a number of torpedo hits, causing it to capsize.   The attack killed 429 crewmen on the ship.

The remains of the deceased crew members were recovered and interred at two cemeteries in Hawaii, and they were later removed and taken to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks in 1947.    Remains that were unidentified were placed at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.  In 2015, the remains were exhumed for analysis, and scientists were able to use DNA analysis and other procedures to identify Goodwin’s remains.

Goodwin is to be buried on May 14th, 2021 in Topeka, Kansas.

[ photo from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency ]