The Department of Defense has officially accounted for two U.S. Navy sailors whose battleship was sunk during the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii that resulted in America’s entry into World War II.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency recently confirmed that they had identified Navy Seaman 2nd Class Michael Malek, 17, and Navy Signalman 3rd Class Austin H. Hesler, 21, who had been assigned to the battleship Oklahoma at the time of the attack.
Along with seven other battleships — Arizona, Maryland, California, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia — the Oklahoma was moored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Several torpedoes struck the Oklahoma, causing the battleship to quickly capsize.
Almost 430 sailors and Marines aboard the Oklahoma, including Petty Officer Malek and Hesler, were killed in the attack. Father Aloysius Schmitt, a Catholic priest aboard the Oklahoma, was the first American chaplain to be killed in World War II.
More than 380 unidentified remains were later interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific until they could be scientifically accounted for.
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