Sailor awarded Medal of Honor for Pearl Harbor heroism identified by DNA
Navy Seaman 1st Class James R. Ward will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery this month. He died at Pearl Harbor saving fellow crew on the USS Oklahoma.
BY PATTY NIEBERG | PUBLISHED DEC 7, 2023 3:57 PM EST
One of 16 sailors awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the attack on Pearl Harbor will be interred in Arlington National Cemetery this month, nearly 82 years after he died saving his fellow sailors.
Navy Seaman 1st Class James R. Ward, of Springfield, Ohio, was killed on Dec. 7, 1941, when he stayed aboard the sinking USS Oklahoma to help fellow crewmen escape. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 1942, one of 16 awarded for actions during the attack that drew the U.S. into World War II.
But Ward’s remains were only identified by DNA analysis in 2021.
Fourteen Navy sailors at Pearl Harbor were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the attack. Another sailor, Chief Aviation Ordnanceman John Finn, was awarded the Medal for keeping up a barrage of anti-aircraft fire at attacking Japanese planes from his post at Kaneohe Bay, on the opposite side of Oahu from the harbor. Marine 1st Lt. George H Cannon was awarded the Medal for leading the defense of Naval Air Station Midway, which was also attacked that morning. Ten of the sailors at Pearl Harbor including Ward, along with Cannon at Midway, died during the attacks.
https://taskandpurpose.com/history/sailor-medal-of-honor-pearl-harbor/
