Just before 8 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service conducted a surprise military strike on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. Of the eight U.S. Navy battleships present, all were damaged, with four sunk. All but USS Arizona were later raised and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship and one minelayer. A total of 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed, 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. “A day which will live in infamy” as President FDR would called the attack, led to this country’s formal entry into World War II the next day.
Upstate NY World War II soldier killed in France identified after 77 years
The remains of a World War II soldier from upstate New York killed in France in 1944 have been identified, defense officials announced Friday.
U.S. Army Pfc. Morris E. Swackhammer, 20, of Binghamton, was accounted for June 28, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. His family only recently received a full briefing on his identification.
Swackhammer was hit by German machine gun fire on Nov. 22, 1944, in woods northwest of the village of Fraize in France’s Alsace region. His squad had to leave his body behind in the face of the enemy attack.
U.S. personnel in 1945 recovered an unidentified body from a cemetery in Fraize they thought could have belonged to Swackhammer, but they could not confirm it.
The remains were interred in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. They were exhumed in July 2019 and bought to the United States after researchers who reviewed historical records concluded the remains were ``strongly associated’’ with Swackhammer, according to the DPAA.
Swackhammer was identified by scientists who relied on DNA, dental and anthropological analyses.
He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia at a date to be determined.
Swackhammer was assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division. His unit landed on the southern coast of France in August 1944 as part of Operation Dragoon.
- The Associated Press