Remains of 19-year-old Virginia sailor killed in Pearl Harbor attack identified

A Virginia man who was killed in World War II has been accounted for, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced this week. 

David Walker, 19, was assigned to the battleship USS California when it was torpedoed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Walker was one of 103 crewmen who died on the ship during the attack, the DPAA said. Remains from the ship were recovered by U.S. Navy personnel and interred in Hawaii cemeteries, including the the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, but it wasn't until 2018 that the 25 men who were buried as "Unknowns" were exhumed. 

The remains were analyzed with anthropological and dental analysis by the DPAA and mitochondrial DNA analysis by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System. 

Now that Walker has been identified, a rosette will be placed next to his name on the Walls of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in September, the DPAA said.  

According to Walker's personnel file, he was from Norfolk, Virginia. There was no information available about surviving relatives, or when Walker entered the U.S. Navy. According to a news clipping shared by the DPAA, Walker enlisted in the U.S. Navy about one year before his death. Another news clipping said that he left high school early to enlist. According to one of the news clippings, Walker's mother, identified as Edna Lee Ward, asked a local reporter to place Walker's photo in the newspaper to announce his death at Pearl Harbor. 

In:
• U.S. Navy
• Pearl Harbor
• U.S. Army

Kerry Breen

Kerry Breen is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News' TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.

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