Hundreds of USS Arizona families expected for Dec. 7 disinterment of WWII unknowns

On Dec. 7, the Defense Department will begin exhuming the caskets of 86 unknown sailors associated with the USS Arizona. A grave marker for an unknown USS Arizona sailor sits at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency will begin disinterring 86 unknowns associated with the ship on Dec. 7, the 85th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, with more than 700 family members of Arizona sailors expected in Hawaii. (Kevin Kline/Operation 85) Over 700 family members of USS Arizona sailors who died in the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor will be on hand in Hawaii as the first caskets of 86 unknowns associated with the sunken ship are exhumed Dec.

7, the 85th anniversary of the attack. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency plans to disinter eight caskets at 6 a.m. from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, otherwise known as the Punchbowl, weather permitting, spokesman Sean Everette said in a statement this week. The disinterment will then be followed by a ceremony five hours later at Kilo Pier on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. An advocacy group called Operation 85 performed the genealogical research and spearheaded efforts to collect family reference DNA to make any identifications possible. The outcome, which was long considered impossible by DPAA, drew praise for Operation 85 from