MADISON, In. (WDRB) -- On Dec. 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor, 25-year-old Navy Fireman 3rd Class Willard I. Lawson was aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma when the Japanese attacked.
That day, one President Franklin D. Roosevelt said would "live in infamy," catapulted the United States into World War II. More than 2,400 people died in the surprise attack.
Lawson, of Milton, Ky., was one of those who died, along with 428 of his shipmates aboard the USS Oklahoma.
The USS Oklahoma was hit and sunk by torpedoes during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (National Archives Photo)
"Just thinking about him perishing in that ship and not being able to get out," said an emotional Linda Gordon, one of Lawson's nieces.
Like many other aboard the Oklahoma, Lawson's remains couldn't be identified and were deemed "non-recoverable" in 1949. As a result, he was buried along with many other unknown military personnel at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Hawaii.
"We didn't really know what happened to him," explained Margaret Lawson Hedman, another niece.
Family members like Hedman and Gordon had just vague details and foggy family folklore to cling onto.
Family members place roses on Lawson's casket. (WDRB Photo)
"When we would go see grandma, she always had a photo of him sitting on her dresser, and she always told us who he was," remembered Hedman.
"I wasn't even born yet, but we heard the story all my life," added Gordon, through tears.
But last fall, everything changed when Gordon got a call.
"It was a very moving experience and very emotional for all of us," she recalled.
In 2015, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a policy memo directing disinterment of unknowns associated with the USS Oklahoma. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began exhuming remains. Using dental analysis, DNA, and circumstantial evidence, the government finally identified Lawson's remains.
Dozens gathered in Madison, In. to memorialize and bury Lawson more than 77 years after his death. (WDRB Photo)
Friday, his remains were flown to Louisville and transported through Milton to Madison. Saturday, dozens of people—family, friends of family, Navy sailors, other veterans and their allies, and complete strangers—gathered to memorialize and bury Lawson at the Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
"We've been waiting patiently—patiently—or maybe impatiently for this to happen," said Hedman.
77 years later, Navy Fireman 3rd Class Willard Lawson is finally home.
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