Tceollyar Simmons was born on June 7, 1920 to James Garfield Simmons (d. 1938) and Ina Simmons (d. 1993) and, interestingly, the grandson of Andrew Jackson Simmons. He would have been 100 this year (2020), but was killed at the age of 18 during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Navy muster rolls list Simmons as assigned to the ship Boggs and then the California in late 1941.

Per the Naval History and Heritage Command:

USS California (BB-44), flagship of the Battle Force, was hit forward and aft by two Japanese torpedoes in the early minutes of the Pearl Harbor raid. She was later hit by a bomb and near-missed by another, which caused additional flooding. Though her design included very good protection against underwater damage, California's actual condition was much less satisfactory, with many watertight compartments open and some design details proving unable to resist the effects of torpedo warheads.

California had steam up and was nearly ready to get underway when a large mass of burning oil, drifting down "Battleship Row", threatened to set the ship afire. She was ordered abandoned, and, when the crew returned on board sometime later, it was impossible to control her flooding. Despite strenuous efforts, she slowly settled to the bottom of Pearl Harbor, coming to rest on 10 December. The battleship was raised in March 1942 and received repairs and modernization work that lasted until January 1944, over two years after she was sunk.

Of the 103 crew members of California died during the attack; 20 sailors from the battleship were MIA or unidentified at the time of this writing. The sailors and marines who died aboard the California were initially buried in Halawa Naval Cemetery and Nuuanu Cemetery, both located on the island of Oahu.

Simmons was awarded a Purple Heart.

Update: In 2018, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting office personnel exhumed the 25 USS California Unknowns from their burial place in Hawaii for analysis. Using more advanced means of analysis the authorities were able to identify several of the unknowns, including Tceollyar Simmons. His remains were transferred from Hawaii and buried on June 14, 2022, in Hacoda, Alabama. (A full transcript of the press release announcing the findings is attached below).

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DPAA NEWS RELEASE

https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/2874015/uss-california-sailor-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-simmons-t/

Press Release | April 19, 2022

USS California Sailor Accounted For From World War II (Simmons, T.)

WASHINGTON – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Navy Seaman 2nd Class Tceollyar Simmons, 18, of Detroit, killed during World War II, was accounted for on Nov. 18, 2021.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Simmons was assigned to the battleship USS California, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS California sustained multiple torpedo and bomb hits, which caused it catch fire and slowly flood. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 104 crewmen, including Simmons.

From December 1941 to April 1942, 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 39 men from the USS California at that time. The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified remains at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified the 25 Unknowns who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Simmons.

In 2018, DPAA personnel exhumed the 25 USS California Unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.

To identify Simmons’ remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Simmons’ name is recorded on the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, 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.

Simmons was buried on June 14, 2022, in Hacoda, Alabama.

For family and funeral information, contact the Navy Service Casualty office at (800) 443-9298.

DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of the Navy for their partnership in this mission.

Sources:

https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/wars-and-events/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor-raid/battleship-row-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack/uss-california-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack.html

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.