A 26-year-old Navy sailor from Patchogue was identified as among those killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday, just days after the attack’s 77th anniversary.
Navy Fireman 3rd Class Kenneth L. Jayne was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft on Dec. 7, 1941, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
The Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize, resulting in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Jayne. He was among 2,403 Americans killed in the attack.
The remains were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries and later transferred to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP). Jayne’s remains were initially deemed unidentified despite early attempts to put names to the fallen. In 2015, PDAA exhumed the unidentified remains of those lost in the Oklahma for analysis.
He was accounted for on March 22, 2016. DPAA scientists and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis, dental analysis, as well as circumstantial and material evidence to identify Jayne’s remains. The Department of Veterans Affairs assisted.
Jayne’s name is recorded on the Walls 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.
