Remains ID’d of 2 Indiana brothers killed during Pearl Harbor attack

La PORTE, Ind. — The remains of two Indiana brothers who were killed in the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor have been identified by U.S. military scientists.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Monday it had identified the remains of Navy Fire Controlman 2nd Class Harold F. Trapp, 24, and Navy Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class William H. Trapp, 23.

The brothers from La Porte in northern Indiana were assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941, when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft while moored at Pearl Harbor.

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The military has identified 100 sailors and Marines killed when the USS Oklahoma capsized during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 76 years ago, officials said Friday.

The USS Oklahoma capsized after sustaining multiple torpedo hits and 429 crewmen were killed, including the Trapp brothers.

In 2015, the remains of unidentified USS Oklahoma servicemen were exhumed from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. The DPPA said military scientists identified the Trapp brothers’ remains last November after analyzing dental, anthropological and genetic evidence.

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Officials believe remains of nearly half of the 83,000 unidentified service members killed in World War II and more recent wars could be identified and returned to relatives.

The Trapp brothers will be reburied in Honolulu on June 15, at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, nearly 80 years after their deaths in the surprise attack that launched the United States into World War II.

The brothers’ names are among the names recorded at the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl. A rosette will be placed next to their names to indicate they have been accounted for.

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