Jan. 22, 2021

WASHINGTON-The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that
Navy Radioman 3rd Class Thomas E. Griffith, 20, of Dayton, Ohio, killed
during World War II, was accounted for on April 21, 2020.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Griffith was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which
was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by
Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which
caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths
of 429 crewmen, including Griffith.

From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the
deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu'uanu
Cemeteries.

In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S.
personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves
Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from
the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification
Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to
confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time.
The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in
Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not
be identified as non-recoverable, including Griffith.

Between June and November 2015, DPAA personnel exhumed the USS Oklahoma
Unknowns from the Punchbowl for analysis.

To identify Griffith's remains, scientists from DPAA anthropological
analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner
System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Griffith'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.

Griffith will be buried May 22, 2021 at Arlington National Cemetery in
Arlington, Virginia.

For family and funeral information, contact the Navy Service Casualty office
at (800) 443-9298.

DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of
the Navy for their partnership in this mission.

For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account
for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA
website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa
or call (703) 699-1420/1169.

Griffith's personnel profile can be viewed at
https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000XeLPEA0.

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Respectfully,

Sean P. Everette
SFC, USA
Public Affairs NCOIC
Outreach and Communications
Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency
241 18th St. South, Suite 800
Arlington, VA 22202
(703) 699-1420

Thomas E Griffith