BOGALUSA (WGNO)—Seaman 1st Class World War II Veteran, Houston Temples is now finally home. Home to his final resting place in Bogalusa at the Ponemah Cemetery where he’s now buried.
The U.S. Navy provided full funeral honors for Temples who was killed on the morning of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 when the first wave of Japanese aircraft struck the U.S.S. Oklahoma with 3 aerial torpedoes.
Decades later Temples’ remains were finally identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency or DPAA who used DNA samples to identify the sailor. They contacted the family.
Shirley Hayman, Temples’ niece who now lives in Texas was here today for her uncle’s funeral and burial.
Hayman said, “How wonderful our government is, our Navy has been to just be persistent at trying to identify and be successful.”
Shirley’s dad was the sailor’s brother and she says there’s one story she always heard.
“I’ve always heard about my uncle and I would ask my dad about Houston. He would say he was a good boy, and when he said good it just encompassed a lot of traits that we had,” she said.
388 Service members from the U.S.S. Oklahoma were unaccounted for. Since then, 355 have been individually identified.