ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. — After nearly 80 years, a Tri-Cities sailor is being laid to rest in his home state.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Navy Seaman 2nd Class William Campbell was serving on the USS Oklahoma at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor when the battleship was torpedoed and sank, killing 429 crewmen.
Campbell was 20 years old.
The crewmembers' remains were recovered from the wreckage and buried in multiple cemeteries after only 35 men from the USS Oklahoma were identified.
The unidentified remains, including Campbell's and another WWII marine from Hancock County, were buried in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), knows as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In June 2015, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) began exhuming remains from the Punchbowl for identification, and Campbell was identified on May 9, 2018, using DNA analysis and anthropological evidence.
In a statement, Department of Veterans Services Commissioner Many-Bears Grinder took the opportunity to welcome the Elizabethton native back to the Volunteer State.
“Welcome home, William,” Grinder said. “It is bittersweet to think about the day our country, this state and the Campbell family lost so much, while also being grateful for the closure this identification and burial with honors will bring.”
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam declared a day of mourning and ordered flags at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Friday, Oct. 12 in honor of Campbell’s service and sacrifice.
“Although the attack on Pearl Harbor remains a painful wound for our country, William’s return to be laid to rest in the state he called home is a source of comfort,” Haslam said. “We join the Campbell family in remembering this hero, and we are grateful he will soon rest under a headstone that bears his name.”
The Campbell family does not wish to be contacted by media or to release arrangements for Seaman 2nd Class Campbell.