Pearl Harbor re-burials across the US give families closure

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U.S. Navy sailors remove the casket with the remains of Seaman First Class Leon Arickx from a hearse at Sacred Heart Cemetery on July 7 where they will be put to rest in Osage, Iowa. (Chris Zoeller/Globe-Gazette via AP, File)
In this July 7, file photo, U.S. Navy Rear Admiral John Krietz presents a folded American flag to Mark Arickx, nephew to Seaman First Class Leon Arickx, at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Osage, Iowa. Arickx’ remains, which were unidentifiable after his death after the attack at Pearl Harbor in 1941, were identified through DNA testing earlier this year. (Chris Zoeller/Globe-Gazette via AP,File)
In this Dec. 5, 2012, file photo, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu displays a gravestone identifying it as the resting place of seven unknown people from the USS Oklahoma who died in the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy, File)
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HONOLULU — It’s been more than 75 years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Some who died on Dec. 7, 1941, are finally being laid to rest in cemeteries across the United States.

In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency dug up nearly 400 sets of remains from a Hawaii cemetery buried as unknowns after the war. The remains were exhumed after determining that advances in DNA technology could make identifications possible.

They were all on the USS Oklahoma, which capsized during the attack.

As of earlier this month, the agency identified 186 sailors and Marines from the Oklahoma that were previously unidentified.

Some have been reburied this year. Others will bury their war heroes today, the 77th anniversary of the attack.