WASHINGTON D.C. (ABC4) – The remains of a Utah serviceman who was killed in Pearl Harbor have been identified, 79 years after the attacks. This week he will return home to be buried in his final resting place.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in Washington D.C. announced on Thursday that Navy Radioman 3rd Class Theodore Q. Jensen of Delta was accounted for on Dec. 17, 2020.
To identify Jensen’s remains, the agency used a combination of dental and anthological analysis, in addition to mitochondrial DNA analysis by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System. The Delta native, who was 22-years-old at the time of the attacks, was buried with many other servicemen whose remains were considered unidentifiable until 2015 when the accounting agency exhumed the unknown deceased.
Originally buried with his fellow unidentified servicemen in Hawaii, where the attacks occurred on Dec. 7, 1941, Jensen’s now-identified remains will be returned to Delta, where he will be buried again onWednesday.
Jensen was serving on the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor when the vessel was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The ship was struck by multiple torpedoes and capsized quickly, resulting in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Jensen.
The American Graves Registration Service began the process of identifying the deceased in 1947 and was only able to identify 35 men at that time.
Jensen’s name was recorded as missing on the Courts of the Missing at the Hawaii burial site. A rosette emblem will be placed next to him, indicating that he has been accounted for.
