Sailor Killed In Pearl Harbor Attack Was From Cherokee County

BALL GROUND, GA — A United States serviceman killed in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor that launched America's involvement in World War II has been identified.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said last week that the remains belong to Navy Shopfitter 3rd Class John M. Donald, 28, of Ball Ground.

Donald was assigned to USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The ship sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Donald.

From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu cemeteries. In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks.

The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including the Ball Ground resident. More than 50 years later in April 2015, the deputy secretary of defense issued a policy memorandum directing the disinterment of unknowns associated with the USS Oklahoma.

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DPAA personnel on June 15, 2015, began exhuming the remains from the Punchbowl for identification. To identify Donald’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis, anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,776 (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II.

Donald’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

For funeral and family contact information, contact the Navy Casualty Office at (800) 443-9298.

Image via Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency