Top Photo: Disinterment at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, November 2, 2026. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) disinterred the first eight caskets containing remains of unidentified servicemembers from the battleship USS Arizona in an effort to identify them, nearly 85 years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor plunged the United States into World War II.

The disinterment was originally scheduled to coincide with the 85th anniversary of the attack. In a letter to USS Arizona families, Operation 85 Executive Director Kevin Kline said that concerns over heavy rainfall and the condition of the deteriorating steel caskets prompted the DPAA to move ahead of schedule. The first eight caskets were successfully disinterred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu on November 2, 2026.

“These men have waited more than eight decades. Their care must guide every decision we make,” Kline said. “I am grateful for DPAA scientists and leadership for recognizing these concerns, discussing them with us, and choosing a path that puts the protection of our fallen first.”

Disinterment at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, November 2, 2026. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)

Nearly 700 family members related to those serving on the USS Arizona are set to travel to Hawaii to mark the 85th anniversary of the attack. Families will attend the National Park Service's commemoration at Pearl Harbor National Memorial on the morning of December 7 before gathering for a separate ceremony at Kilo Pier on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The eight disinterred unknown servicemembers will be present at the ceremony under military escort and with full honors.

In an interview with The National WWII Museum in October, Kline said it was important to have the unknowns at the ceremony, allowing family members to place roses on the caskets.

“Most likely someone is laying a flower on their family member’s [casket], and they just don’t know it yet,” Kline said.

More than 2,400 Americans were killed in the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941, including 1,177 crewmembers of Arizona. Of the men pulled from the battleship’s wreckage, many were burned beyond recognition, and their bodies were buried in nearby cemeteries as unknowns. In 1947, 170 set of these remains were exhumed and over 100 servicemembers identified, but dozens of crew members were declared “unrecoverable.” Those men were reburied at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

View looking up "Battleship Row" on December 7, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The battleship USS Arizona (BB-39) is in the center, burning furiously. To the left of it are USS Tennessee (BB-43) and the sunken USS West Virginia (BB-48). National Archives

According to Operation 85, the US Navy deemed the effort to identify the USS Arizona unknowns impractical in 2022, estimating it would take 10 years and $2.7 million to locate viable family DNA donors. At the time, DNA samples represented just 25 unresolved crew cases.

One of the men who perished aboard Arizona was Kline’s grand-uncle, Gunner’s Mate Second Class Robert Edwin Kline. In 2023, Kevin Kline founded Operation 85, a privately funded, civilian-led organization aimed at identifying the remaining unknowns. Over the past three years, Kline has advocated for their disinterment and located family members who could provide DNA reference samples. He credited cooperation with the DPAA and the US Marine Corps for helping the organizations overcome the final obstacles.  

“I had just gone too far. I wasn’t going to stop,” Kline said.

In April 2026, the DPAA announced that the effort had reached the required 60 percent threshold of DNA family reference samples of the ship’s missing crew, representing at least 643 servicemembers.

Operation 85 signed a formal partnership with the DPAA in the summer of 2026, improving coordination and information sharing between the organizations.

Kline said that the DPAA plans to disinter 141 Pearl Harbor unknowns over several weeks. Of those, 86 are believed to have been recovered from USS Arizona during salvage operations.

"Being able to disinter the 86 unknowns associated with the USS Arizona is singularly due to the determined initiative and extraordinary efforts of Operation 85," DPAA Director Kelly McKeague said. “While USS Arizona families whose loved ones were lost on that fateful day can draw solace at the solemn memorial, DPAA is honored to be able to provide long-sought answers to families of these unknowns.”  

Kline stressed that the disinterment process only involves remains from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, and that any remains inside the sunken Arizona will not be disturbed.

Disinterment at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, November 2, 2026. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA)

After disinterment, the remains will be taken to DPAA laboratories in Hawaii to begin the identification process. The remains will undergo forensic examination and DNA testing, which will be compared against the collected family reference samples.

Kline said some cases could be resolved relatively quickly, while others might take months or longer.

“They’ll tell people it could be a few months, or it could take a year, or year and a half to finish all of the cases,” Kline said.

Operation 85 is still collecting family DNA reference samples, which could aid the identification process. Kline said that approximately 70 percent of the USS Arizona crew have been represented through collection efforts.

“My goal is to have 100% of the crew represented,” Kline said.

Families who believe they are related to someone killed at Pearl Harbor can contact Operation 85 for help determining whether they might be eligible to provide a reference sample.

For Kline, the 85th anniversary represents both the culmination of years of work and the beginning of a new chapter to bring closure to Arizona families.

“These men had names, families, and lives before December 7, 1941,” Kline said. “Being buried as unknown should not mean being forgotten. We cannot promise every family an identification. But after 85 years, we can finally help give them a chance for answers.”