Sail who died in Pearl Harbor attack identified

The remains of a sailor missing in action since the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor have been identified, a federal agency said.

2nd Class Claude Ralph Garcia died at age 25 while serving as a shipfitter aboard the USS West Virginia when Japanese forces attacked the U.S. naval base near Honolulu.

A positive identification was made by the Defense POW MIA Accounting Agency, which accounts for missing defense personnel.

Garcia was born on April 27th, 1916 in Ventura County, California to father Rafael Garcia, according to Honor States, an organization that tracks the life and achievements of fallen military members.

He graduated from Ventura High School in 1933 and attended community college before enlisting in the Navy, according to local news reports from 1943 described Garcia as the first presumed casualty of World War II, and his memorial service was estimated to have drawn over 300 mourners.

Garcia's remains had been buried along with other unidentified bodies from the USS West Virginia battleship at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as Punchbowl Cemetery, the accounting agency said in a news release.

The attack on Pearl Harbor caused bombs and torpedoes to sank the ship, killing 106 crew members, the agency said. There were 2,403 deaths in the attack.

Many of the USS West Virginia casualties were identified in a mass disinterment six years after the attack. Many of the bodies were buried until 2017, when 35 caskets were exhumed and sent to a laboratory for identification using methods such as mitochondrial DNA, dental analysis, anthropological analysis and material evidence, according to the Defense POW MIA Accounting Agency.

25 of the original 106 deaths had been unidentified as of 2016, it said. Among the others who have been ID'd recently are Navy fireman Harold K. Costill, who died at age 18. The agency identified Keith W. Tipsword, a Navy machinist s mate, in addition to Garcia last month.

Since the efforts began in the 1970s, nearly 2,000 dead members of the U.S. military have been identified, the agency said.

It is our sacred duty to find, account for and bring home these service members who made the ultimate sacrifice, Sgt. Sean Everette, a spokesman for the agency, told the VC Star that he was 1st Class.