Video

Video by Daryl Vaca

U.S. Navy Radioman 3rd Class Starring B. Winfield Funeral Service

Arlington National Cemetery

May 9, 2024 | 8:10

Sailors from the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard and the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Band conduct Military Funeral Honors with Funeral Escort for U.S. Navy Radioman 3rd Class Starring B. Winfield in Section 55 of Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., May 9, 2024. From a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency press release: On Dec. 7, 1941, Winfield was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Winfield. From 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. In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. 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. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Winfield. In 2003, renewed efforts to identify the Unknowns of the USS Oklahoma began with the exhumation of one of the 46 graves containing USS Oklahoma Unknowns. In 2015, DPAA received the approval to exhume the rest of the USS Oklahoma Unknowns from the NMCP, which were accessioned into the Laboratory between June and November of that year. To identify Winfield’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis. Winfield was officially accounted for on June 24, 2019. His nephew, Adam Morrill, received the U.S. flag from Winfield’s funeral service at Arlington National Cemetery.