Pearl Harbor sailor gets funeral 75 years later

HONOLULU (AP) – A sailor killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor has been buried with full military honors nearly 75 years after the bombing.

Machinists Mate 1st Class Vernon Luke of Green Bay, Wisconsin, was buried at a veterans cemetery in Honolulu on Wednesday.

The 43-year-old was killed when Japanese planes bombed his battleship, the USS Oklahoma, on Dec. 7, 1941.

His remains were initially thought to be unidentifiable, and he was buried as an “unknown.” He was among nearly 400 unidentified sailors and Marines from the battleship.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency last year decided dug up their comingled remains, saying advances in forensic science and technology had made identification more feasible.

The agency now expects to identify 80 percent of the Oklahoma missing within five years.

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)