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WICHITA, Kan. — Nearly 78 years after he died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Navy Seaman 2nd Class Wilbur Clayton Barrett was laid to rest in his native Kansas.
Barrett’s remains were returned to Wichita, Kan., on Thursday. He was buried in El Dorado, Kan., on Saturday.
He was an El Dorado native who enlisted in the Navy in May 1940 at age 25.
Barrett’s remains were commingled in mass graves in Hawaii with hundreds of others killed on the USS Oklahoma during the Pearl Harbor attack. Advances in DNA and a renewed push by the military to identify remains led to Barrett being positively identified last June.
Barrett’s great nephew, 72-year-old Joe Binter, said the Navy used DNA from one of his aunts to identify the sailor.