SOUTH HAVEN, Kan.— The remains of a Kansas man who was killed 78 years ago when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor have been identified.

U.S. Navy Fireman 1st Class Rex Wise will be buried in April near his home in South Haven, near the state’s southern border with Oklahoma, The Wichita Eagle reports.

"I think it's great," said Wise's niece, Helen Weller. "I wish his brothers and sister could have been alive to see him properly buried."

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Tuesday that Wise was accounted for in fall 2019.

The 21-year-old was serving on board the battleship Oklahoma when torpedoes hit the vessel, killing 429 personnel. For decades, hundreds killed on board the Oklahoma went unidentified.

Weller said dental and DNA evidence from Wise’s late sister helped identify the remains of the fallen sailor.

Wise’s sister, Eunice Wittum, died in 2017 at age 99 and was the last of 10 siblings, according to her obituary.

Navy Times editor’s note: We initially missed an error in the Associated Press story but we fixed it. Fireman 1st Class Rex Wise was a sailor, not a soldier.

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