ST. LOUIS — A sailor from St. Louis will finally be laid to rest later this year after his remains were identified nearly 80 years after he was killed in the Pearl Harbor attack.
Coxswain Paul L. Boemer was one of 429 crewmen of the USS Oklahoma who died on Dec. 7, 1941. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said that he was accounted for on Sept. 29, 2020, after years of analysis.
Boemer's family was recently briefed on his identification, which is why the announcement was delayed until now.
Boemer was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. The battleship was torpedoed, causing it to quickly capsize.
From 1941 to 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the crew and interred them in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries.
In 1947, the American Graves Registration Service disinterred the remains from the crewmembers and were able to confirm the identities of 35 of the men from the USS Oklahoma.
The remaining unidentified remains were placed in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, and were classified as non-recoverable in 1949.
His remains remained there until 2015 when DPAA personnel exhumed the USS Oklahoma Unknowns for further analysis.
Through dental, anthropological and DNA analysis, scientists were able to identify Boemer on Sept. 29, 2020.
"Boemer’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII," a press release from DPAA said. "A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for."
Boemer will be buried May 3, 2022, in his hometown.