Researchers could potentially put names to 141 unidentified service members killed during Imperial Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, after a key milestone was reached.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Thursday that families of USS Arizona crew members have submitted enough genetic reference samples to meet a 60% collection threshold, according to a DPAA press release. Department of War policy mandates that general level of family reference samples before the agency can exhume unknown remains for identification, Stars and Stripes reported.
The remains are buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, with 88 connected to the USS Arizona and 52 carrying no confirmed ship connections. The DPAA plans to begin exhumations of the unknowns tied to the Arizona in November or December eight at a time every two to three weeks, Director Kelly McKeague told the outlet in March. (RELATED: Remains Of Teen US Soldier Who Went Missing During Korean War Identified)
For Dec. 7, 1941’s unknowns, the number of samples needed was 643, Stars and Stripes reported. The milestone arrived in large part because of one civilian.
Virginia real estate agent Kevin Kline, Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class Robert Kline’s grandnephew, launched the organization Operation 85 in 2023, according to the outlet. He and a team used roughly $75,000, most of it from his own pocket, to locate most of the 643 families. He stepped in after a 2022 Navy report to Congress disclosed the government possessed family reference samples for only 25 unknowns and projected an approximately 10-year, $2.7 million timeline to gather the rest.
DPAA announced the 60% threshold of DNA Family Reference Samples has been met for the USS Arizona (BB-39) Unknown Identification Project.
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— Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) (@dodpaa) April 23, 2026
Previously, McKeague said online in 2021 that pursuing identifications did not make “pragmatic sense,” Military Times reported. The Navy had similarly signaled no intention to act, the DPAA’s deputy director, Rear Adm. Darias Banaji, said. The Pentagon granted the ability to disinter groups of unknown military personnel if it’s anticipated to identify at least 60% in 2015, according to the outlet.
“How could we all not feel proud?” Kline told Stars and Stripes. “We hit a major milestone, but there are still hundreds of families to find, disinterments ahead, and hopefully identifications to follow.”
DPAA said the search for additional family DNA contributors for Arizona and Pearl Harbor continues.