tonyo6302's Link
The bones of Lt. j.g. Aloysius H. Schmitt, a Catholic priest from St. Lucas, Iowa, were identified by experts with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency as part of a project to put names with the remains of those who died on the ship Dec. 7, 1941.
Father Schmitt’s corroded chalice, with a cross etched in its base, and his waterlogged Latin prayer book were recovered from the wreckage months after the attack.
But his body and the bodies of most of the sailors and Marines recovered were too jumbled and decomposed to be identified at the time.
The Oklahoma’s loss of life at Pearl Harbor — a total of 429 sailors and Marines — was second only to the 1,100 lost on the USS Arizona, which remains a hallowed historic site. The Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II.
The battleship, which had a complement of about 1,300, quickly rolled over in 50 feet of water, trapping hundreds of men below decks.
Thirty-two were saved by rescue crews who heard them banging for help, cut into the hull and made their way through a maze of darkened, flooded compartments to reach them.
Others managed to escape by swimming underwater to find their way out. Some trapped sailors tried to stem the rushing water with rags and even the board from a game. One distraught man tried to drown himself.
A few managed to escape through portholes — saved by brave comrades such as Father Schmitt, who is said to have helped as many as 12 sailors get out of a small compartment.
He was posthumously given the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for heroism.
The medal citation states that after helping several shipmates to safety, he got stuck in the porthole as other sailors tried to pull him through.
“Realizing that other men had come into the compartment looking for a way out, Chaplain Schmitt insisted that he be pushed back into the ship so that they might escape,” the citation says.
“Calmly urging them on with a pronouncement of his blessing, he remained behind while they crawled out to safety,” it says.
Most of the dead were found in the wreckage during the months-long salvage operation, especially after the Oklahoma was righted in 1943, according to the Arlington, Va.-based DPAA. They were eventually buried as “unknowns” in a cemetery in Hawaii.
Last year, the Pentagon exhumed the remains of what are believed to be 388 of them. Sixty-one rusty caskets were retrieved from 45 graves. Numerous caskets contained the remains of several individuals.
And with the help of enhanced technology and techniques, experts have been gradually making identifications. More than a dozen have been made since the project began. The remains are being studied at special labs in Hawaii and Omaha.
May his family be relieved and still proud, may his soul rest in peace
Overpaid human garbage like him aren't fit to even be in the presence of this man's grave.
