The remains of a decorated US Navy sailor killed in Pearl Harbor have been returned after 81 years.
Clarence Thompson of New Orleans was laid to rest at the Southeast Louisiana Veterans Cemetery in Slidell on August 25.
“I became emotional. This is a long time,” Thompson’s cousin Denise Bennett told WGNO.
Thompson, 42, was one of 429 killed when Japanese torpedo bombers attacked the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor during World War II.
Thompson was among the hundreds of dead who could not be identified and are therefore buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In 2015, they were exhumed as part of the Oklahoma Navy Project, where the remains of 388 unidentified servicemen from the doomed ship were exhumed in an attempt to identify them through DNA testing.
Since then, 355 men, including Thompson, who was taken into account on October 14, 2021, have been identified.
Thompson died after his ship, the USS Oklahoma, was attacked. Denise Bennett
Thompson, who was 42 when he was killed, was buried 81 years after his death. AP
Flags were presented to Thompson’s cousin Denise Bennett and her nephew Landon Clayton at the funeral.Sophia Germer mes-Picayune)/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP
Thompson, who attained the rank of Cook First Class, served in the Navy for more than 23 years and earned a Purple Heart, according to the Shreveport Times.
“A great American who defended our country like that, and was willing to serve for 23-plus years, he deserves to be honored,” Rear Adm. Terry Eddinger, the US Navy’s Deputy Chief of Chaplain for Reserve Affairs, told WGNO.
“The family can now know he is in this cemetery with his shipmates and comrades who died in the same war as him.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
