Sailor Missing From World War II Identified (Barncord)

Navy Electrician's Mate 3rd Class Cecil E. Barncord, missing from World War II, has now been accounted for.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Barncord was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Barncord. No single vessel at Pearl Harbor, with the exception of the USS Arizona, suffered as many fatalities.

From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries.

In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Barncord.

In April 2015, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a policy memorandum directing the disinterment of unknowns associated with the USS Oklahoma. On June 15, 2015, DPAA personnel began exhuming the remains from the NMCP for analysis.

DNA analysis and circumstantial evidence were used in the identification of his remains.

Interment services are pending.

https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt000000eglVOEAY

On December 6, 2016, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Electrician's Mate Third Class Cecil Everett Barncord, missing from World War II.

Electrician's Mate Third Class Barncord joined the U.S. Navy from Kansas and served aboard the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. While his remains were recovered in the aftermath of the attack, he could not be identified at the time and was buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2015, advances in forensic techniques prompted the reexamination and eventual identification of EM3c Barncord's remains.

Electrician's Mate Third Class Barncord is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Cecil E Barncord