Pearl Harbor Sailor’s Remains Coming Home to Kansas

The remains of a U.S. Navy member killed in the Pearl Harbor attack will be returned to be buried in his hometown in Kansas nearly 75 years after his death.

The  remains of Navy Seaman 2nd Class Dale Pearce will be flown by military escort to Tulsa.

Family members, escorted by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and local police, will take the casket to Parsons. It’ll be buried Thursday in Dennis, a Labette County town of about 300 people.

According to military records, Pearce’s remains were recovered about a year after the 1941 attack. But advances in DNA technology in recent years have allowed authorities to identify remains of those deceased long ago.

Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency scientists used family DNA and dental comparisons to identify Pearce.

Associated Press information from: The Wichita Eagle