DISCOVERY

Defense Agency Identifies Pearl Harbor Victim 80 Years After Attack

Navy Seaman 1st Class Billy Turner was one of 429 crew members killed on the USS Oklahoma.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced it has identified one of the hundreds of crew members killed in the attack on the USS Oklahoma during Pearl Harbor, the agency said in a press release last week. Navy Seaman 1st Class Billy Turner, 20, was on the ship during the Japanese forces’ ambush, with torpedos capsizing the ship and killing 429 sailors. Turner’s remains could not initially be identified after years of attempts, leading to him and a number of others being classified as non-recoverable in 1949. But the DPAA exhumed those classified as such in 2015 for a second attempt at identification, spending years to analyze the remains through new technology. It eventually identified Turner on Oct. 1. “DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of the Navy for their partnership in this mission,” it said. Turner will be buried in his hometown of Ardmore, Oklahoma, according to KJRH.