Flags at half-staff Saturday in KY to honor KY sailor killed in Pearl Harbor in 1941
(KBSI) – Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear ordered flags at all state buildings to be lowered to half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Saturday, July 22.
This is to honor a Kentucky sailor who was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but whose remains were only identified in 2021.
Navy Seaman 1st Class Elmer P. Lawrence, 25, of Park City, Ky. died in the attack on Dec. 7, 1941.
Lawrence was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which quickly caused it to capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Lawrence.
From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries.
In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Lawrence.
Between June and November 2015, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) personnel exhumed the USS Oklahoma Unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.
To identify Lawrence’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.
Lawrence’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Funeral services for Lawrence will be held Saturday at Shiloh General Baptist Church in Railton, Ky. Burial will immediately follow at Shiloh Cemetery.
All people, businesses, organizations and government agencies are encouraged to join in this tribute of lowering the flag to honor Lawrence.
