MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A Minnesota soldier killed in World War II has been found and accounted for, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
The Browns Valley soldier, Navy Seaman 2nd Class Laverne A. Nigg, was killed Dec. 7, 1941 aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma, when the ship and the harbor were attacked by Japanese aircraft.
In the years following Pearl Harbor, the Navy recovered the remains of killed crew members and they were interred at the Halawa and Nu’uanu cemeteries.
A number of soldiers remained unidentified for years, as laboratory staffers in the late ’40s could only confirm the identities of 35 soldiers from the USS Oklahoma. They were buried in a number of plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
In the last decade, the DPAA exhumed the unknown remains from that cemetery (also known as the “Punchbowl”) for analysis, using techniques such as mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome DNA, and autosomal DNA.
It was through that analysis that the remains of soldier Nigg were confirmed and accounted for. His remains will be buried in Browns Valley in June.
Source : https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2022/04/28/minnesota-wwii-soldier-killed-in-pearl-harbor-now-accounted-for/
