Remains from Pearl Harbor to be exhumed for ID

The human remains from as many as 388 sailors and Marines who died aboard the USS Oklahoma after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor will be exhumed for analysis and identification, the Department of Defense announced Tuesday.

"Analysis of all available evidence indicates that most USS Oklahoma crew members can be identified upon disinterment," the Pentagon said in the news release.

The Oklahoma sank on Dec. 7, 1941, after it was hit by torpedoes in the Japanese surprise attack, killing 429 sailors and Marines aboard the ship. In the years afterward, divers recovered bodies from the sunken warship and buried them in unknown graves.

The unknown bodies are to be exhumed from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and will be analyzed by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency's Hawaii laboratory.

Navy and Marine Corps casualty officers started notifying next-of-kin Tuesday morning, the Defense Department said.