ROSS COUNTY, Ohio — On Saturday, the Scioto Valley will honor a fallen sailor who was killed on the USS Oklahoma during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Multiple torpedo hits caused the USS Oklahoma to capsize quickly. Hoffman was among the 429 crewmen who died in the attack.
From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew and entered the remains into the Halawa and Nu’uanu cemeteries.
“Members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains from the two cemeteries in September 1947 and transferred them to the Schofield Barracks Central Identification Laboratory. According to AGRS, only 35 men from the USS Oklahoma could be identified at that time by the laboratory staff. AGRS later buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.”
After 81 years, musician 1st class Joseph W. Hoffman’s remains were identified, and this week he will make his final journey home.
The Ross County Veterans Service Office is asking residents to line the procession route this Saturday, which will begin at the highway exit on East Main Street in Chillicothe. The processions will then proceed to the Veteran’s Memorial Park on Yoctangee Parkway.
Officials say, following the ceremony, the procession will make its way to the Greenfield Cemetery, where Hoffman will be laid to rest near his family.
The procession is scheduled to arrive at the East Main Street exit around 10:20 a.m., Saturday.
