The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that 19-year old Navy Fireman 1st Class William D. Tucker of Bedford, Iowa, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Dec. 3, 2020.
Tucker’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl (National Memorial Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii), along with the others who are missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
William David Tucker, who lost his life on December 7, 1941 on the Battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) in the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, will be brought back home to his final resting place. A graveside service was held at the Fairview Cemetery in Bedford, IA on June 30, 2021. (photo included)
William David Tucker was born Feb. 2, 1922 to William Virgas and Agnes Mary Box Tucker. He died Dec. 7, 1941 and is memorialized at the Courts of the Missing, Court 2, Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Petty Officer Tucker served in World War II with the U.S. Navy and was MIA/FOD/KIA in the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was awarded the Purple Heart.
Petty Officer Tucker served aboard the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when attacked by Japanese forces. In the days, months, and years following the attack, remains of men lost aboard the Oklahoma were recovered. Those remains that could not be identified were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Honolulu, Hawaii. From June through November 2015, DPAA personnel, in cooperation with cemetery officials, exhumed all remaining caskets associated with the USS Oklahoma and transferred the remains to their laboratories. Laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established one set of these remains as those of Tucker.
He is also memorialized at the USS Oklahoma Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Source: ancestry.com; Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
