Edward Johnson
A North Dakota man who was killed during World War II and accounted for on Sept. 29, 2020, will be buried on Friday, Oct. 25, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).
Navy Fireman 1st Class Edward Dale Johnson, 24, who was born at Hurdsfield and listed New Rockford as his hometown, was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The ship sustained multiple torpedo hits and quickly capsized. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Johnson.
The remains of the deceased crew were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu cemeteries. Johnson’s remains and the remains of others who could not be identified during a Defense Department effort in 1947 were exhumed in 2015 for DNA analysis, with the goal of returning identified remains to their families. Scientists were able to identify the remains, according to DPAA information.
Johnson lived in North Dakota until moving to Linn County, Oregon, in 1938. He enlisted in December 1939, in Portland, Oregon.
