Mavericks and the gnarly waves at Half Moon Bay.

A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.įor funeral details and family contact information, contact the Navy Casualty Office at (800) 443-9298.įor additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at find us on social media at or call (703) 699-1420/1169.There are 840 miles of coastline in California, some of which you can surf. Finnegan’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII. Currently there are 72,771 (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. To identify Finnegan’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence.ĭPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this mission. On June 15, 2015, DPAA personnel began exhuming the remains from the NMCP for analysis. In April 2015, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a policy memorandum directing the disinterment of unknowns associated with the USS Oklahoma. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Finnegan. The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Finnegan.įrom December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries.

The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. 7, 1941, Finnegan was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Finnegan, 44, of Bessemer, Michigan, killed during World War II, was accounted for on April 18, 2016. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Navy Ensign William M.

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