Howard Backman was just 22 when he was killed at Pearl Harbor. Now he’s finally coming back to his hometown.
AURORA, IL — U.S. Navy Petty Officer Second Class Walter Howard Backman was killed at the bombing of Pearl Harbor when he was just 22 years old. Like many of the other victims of Pearl Harbor, the Aurora native’s remains were not identified after his death. Now, after more than 75 years, Backman’s remains have been identified and will be buried in a Batavia cemetery, according to Chicago Tribune.
Backman, along with close to 400 other men who had not been identified, was ultimately buried in one of nearly 50 mass graves in National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
Nearly 70 years later, in 2015, the USS Oklahoma Remains Preservation Project made it their mission to identify the fallen sailors. They disinterred nearly 13,000 skeletal remains, Chicago Tribune reports, using DNA samples to identify the remains. Backman’s remains were discovered in the first wave of sailors who were positively identified.
According to Chicago Tribune, it is not clear whether Backman has any remaining family in the Aurora area.
After Backman arrives back home in Illinois, his remains will be buried in a plot at Batavia’s River Hills Memorial Park.
FILE – In this Dec. 5, 2012 file photo, a gravestone identifying the resting place of 7 unknowns from the USS Oklahoma is shown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. The military says it has identified 100 sailors and Marines killed when the USS Oklahoma capsized during the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor 76 years ago. The milestone comes two years after the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency dug up nearly 400 sets of remains from a Hawaii to identify the men who have been classified as missing since the war. (AP Photo/Audrey McAvoy, File)
