The remains of Edward D. Bowden, a Navy fireman who died in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, have been identified more than eight decades after the tragedy, military officials announced on Tuesday. Bowden, 29, was serving aboard the USS California when Japanese forces struck, sinking the ship and killing more than 100 crew members, per CBS News. After the attack, recovery teams retrieved remains for months, but only a fraction were identified at the time.
In 1947, unidentified remains from the vessel were moved to a lab on the Hawaiian island of Oahu for further analysis, leading to more identifications, though 20 sailors—including Bowden—remained nameless and were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. Their names were inscribed at the site's "Courts of the Missing."
Bowden's family received word of his death in 1942, and by 1949, officials declared his remains nonrecoverable. Decades later, advances in forensic science prompted the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to exhume the unknown remains from the USS California in 2018. Through DNA and dental analysis, along with circumstantial evidence, Bowden was identified and officially accounted for on April 1 of this year.
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The development brings closure to Bowden's surviving relatives, who've been notified of the identification, per a DPAA release. A rosette will mark his name on the memorial wall, signifying his return from the ranks of the missing. Bowden is set to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery later this month. Of the 20 sets of remains exhumed in 2018, 11 have now been identified; work continues to name the remaining nine.
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