Woodland sailor, killed at Pearl Harbor, finally laid to rest

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The remains of U.S. Navy Musician 2nd Class Francis E. Dick made their final voyage to the Fort Vancouver Military Cemetery Feb. 13, decades after his ship, the USS Oklahoma, sank in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The rain held off for a commitment service in Vancouver for the sailor, a Woodland High School graduate. For decades Dick was one of close to 400 soldiers who died aboard the ship but never received proper identification following the attack some 77 years ago.

During the Dec. 7, 1941 attack, the USS Oklahoma, a battleship, was torpedoed several times by Japanese aircrafts, causing it to quickly capsize. 429 crewmen died in the attack, but only a few dozen were positively identified during a push by the American Graves Registration Service in 1947 to put names to the remains.

For decades, Dick and the hundreds of others not identified lay in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, often referred to as “The Punchbowl.”

In 2015 then-Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work issued a memo directing those group remains to be disinterred and identified. Using a variety of means including two different types of DNA testing, anthropological analysis as well as circumstantial and material evidence, DPAA staff was able to identify Dick’s remains.



Following the announcement of the positive ID in September, Dick returned to Washington this month. Members of the U.S. Navy, the Community Military Appreciation Committee and the Patriot Guard Riders led the procession at the Vancouver Barracks cemetery.

Dick was buried just behind the grave of his brother, John, who died in 1994. John was a Lieutenant Colonel with the U.S. Air Force, having served in World War II and Korea. Several of his relatives were in attendance.

Dick’s sister, Carole Green, received honors for her brother, including ones from the Patriot Guard Riders and the office of U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler. Green was amazed when her brother was finally identified.

“It’s just mind-boggling,” she said.