Nebraska lab IDs more than 300 Pearl Harbor sailors and Marines
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. — The remains of more than 300 sailors and Marines who died when the USS Oklahoma sank during the attack on Pearl Harbor 79 years ago have been identified thanks to the work of experts at Offutt Air Force Base.
The six-year effort to identify 388 people who went missing when the USS Oklahoma capsized during the attack is wrapping up this week after 338 of them have been identified.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has used DNA technology and other modern methods to identify the remains that were sent to Offutt after they were disinterred from the National Military Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
The agency’s forensic anthropologists and historians beat their goal of identifying at least 315, or 80%, of the missing men, and several more identifications could be made once the latest test results are received, said Carrie LeGarde, the anthropologist who is leading the project.
On Wednesday, the agency will hold a ceremony in Lincoln before seven flag-draped cases containing 7,500 unidentifiable bones are loaded aboard an Air Force plane to be returned to Hawaii for reburial. Another ceremony will take place in Hawaii once the remains arrive there a few hours later. The ceremonies will be broadcast live on the agency’s Facebook page.
Nebraska man reported missing after camping trip to Hawaii
LINCOLN, Neb. — A Nebraska man has been reported missing after he did not return home as expected on May 25 after a camping trip to the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
Twenty-three-year-old Samuel Joseph Martinez had been studying microbiology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before he flew to Kauai on May 12 with plans to spend nearly two weeks hiking and camping.
His father, Ted Martinez, said Saturday the family hasn’t heard from Samuel Martinez since a few hours after he landed on the island. Samuel Martinez had eight permits to camp at different locations around Kauai.
Ted Martinez said the family, which lives in North Bend, Nebraska, filed a missing persons report with Lincoln Police on Wednesday a day after Samuel Martinez missed his flight home.
Ted Martinez said that police on Kauai are planning to begin a search for his son on Sunday, and hikers are being asked to watch out for him.
Police: Man hits tree, dies in single-car crash in Honolulu
HONOLULU — A man has died in a single-vehicle crash near Honolulu after the car he was operating hit a pole and a tree, authorities said.
The Honolulu Police Department said the 39-year-old man crashed in Waikiki on Sunday around 3:15 a.m. when he lost control of his vehicle.