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World War Two Marine Laid to Rest
Private First Class John F. Middleswart, a native of San Diego, Calif., was laid to rest for the final time on June 8, 2021, at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, Calif.
On December 7, 1941, Middleswart was on board the USS Oklahoma as it was struck by numerous torpedoes launched by enemy aircraft during the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Oklahoma soon capsized, resulting in the deaths of 429 Sailors and Marines.
Initially, the recovered remains of the crewmembers were interred at the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemetery.
In 1947, an attempt to identify the unknown remains resulted in only 35 of the 429 crewmembers being identified. The remains were then transported to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, HI.
In 1949, the military officially deemed those still unidentified as unrecoverable.
Fortunately, in 2015, the Defense Prisoners of War / Missing in Action Accounting Agency (DPAA), received
permission to exhume the gravesites and attempt to identify the remains yet again.
On February 4, 2021, after performing a DNA analysis on the remains and taking samples of relatives, the DPAA confirmed that a set of remains they recovered was, in fact, Middleswart.
| Date Taken: | 06.08.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 06.14.2021 18:54 |
| Story ID: | 398895 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 37 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Pfc. Middleswart Funeral, by Sgt Zachary Beatty, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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