TWO COOL STORIES

These are off of the Navy News Service, both are quite different and could only happen in the military … no wonder I miss it.

The first comes from the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the fourth of the Nimitz-class carriers. Seems a sailor went overboard into the Persian Gulf during night ops at around 0215 Sunday morning (12/18) “The ship and aircraft from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 8 immediately started rescue operations. A helicopter from Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron (HS) 3 returned the Sailor to the deck of the carrier at 3:10 a.m. Medical personnel evaluated the Sailor, who was determined to be in good condition,” according to US Fifth Fleet PA. Can you imagine being that guy?!?

The second tales comes from Pearl Harbor where a sailor from the December 7, 1941 attack was finally identified. He is Seaman 2nd Class Warren P. Hickok of Kalamazoo, Mich. The family has been notified and has not set a date for his burial.

This is an interesting tale … and the DoD constantly releases names of ID’d guys from all the wars as they are confirmed. I was pretty astounded to find that out. Anyway …

Hickok was assigned to the Light Mine Layer USS Sicard (DM 21) when the Japanese attacked. Many crew members from Sicard, including Hickok, were dispatched to assist the crew of USS Cummings (DD 365), a destroyer docked nearby. Cummings succeeded in getting underway and cleared Pearl with no casualties. However, an investigation into those still unaccounted-for after the attack surmised that Hickok may have been a casualty aboard the battleship USS Pennsylvania (BB 38), since some crewmen from Sicard had been dispatched to Pennsylvania during the attack.

In the days following the attack, burial details interred many of the unknown dead in Nuuanu Cemetery on Oahu. Among those buried were an unknown Sailor identified only as X-2. Following the war, the Army Graves Registration Service oversaw the disinterment of unknown remains, including X-2. They could not be identified and were reburied in Section E, Grave 73 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, on June 9, 1949.

In 2004, an avocational historian – which, as near as I can tell, is a guy who likes history – contacted the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Hawaii and suggested that the remains in Grave 731 may be those of Hickok. Based on available records, JPAC exhumed the grave in June 2005. Forensic anthropologists at JPAC were able to match those remains, including dental remains, with detailed information found in Hickok's World War II medical and dental records.

Of the 88,000 unaccounted-for Americans from all conflicts, 78,000 are from World War II.

Wild tale, eh?