More than 75 years later, the remains of a Lakewood, NJ, U.S. serviceman from World War II have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today.
Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Earl R. Melton, 24, of Lakewood, New Jersey, will be buried June 28, in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Melton was assigned to the 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 caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Melton.
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 (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Melton.
In April 2015, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a policy memorandum directing the disinterment of unknowns associated with the USS Oklahoma. On June 15, 2015, DPAA personnel began exhuming the remains from the NMCP for analysis.
To identify Melton’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used mitochondrial, Y-chromosome Short Tandem Repeat and autosomal DNA analysis, which matched a niece and four nephews, as well as circumstantial evidence and laboratory analysis, to include dental comparisons, which matched Melton’s records.
Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 73,052 service members (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II.
May his memory be a blessing.
Are we gonna have a ceremony in Lakewood?? Would love to go
A true American hero.
Great piece of American history!
There were over 500,000 Jewish Servicemen that served in the US Military during WW2
I agree , we should go. In Droves. BTW, 73,000+ unaccounted for servicemen is a very high number. It’s, like, 18%. That’s so sad that 73,000 families have no idea what happened to their sons, brothers etc. Nebech.
Earl, Thank you for your ultimate sacrifice to this great country. WE ARE INDEBTED TO ALL SERVICE MEMBERS FOR THIER SELFLESS DEDICATION.
Local officials: please name a park in Earls memory lest we forget a local hero.
I want to thank the Navy and the Department of Defense for their devoted efforts in the identification and returning Uncle Earl to our family and to his final resting place at Arlington next week. I wish my Dad, John, were alive to know this, as he was at Pearl Harbor the night of December 7 and found out himself the fate of Earl over 75 years ago. Thank God for the military we have in this great nation!