NEHER; DON OCLE
UNITED STATES NAVY
WORLD WAR II
KS
Individual Type Accounted For
Rank EM3c
Service Number 3422187
Location Hawaiian Islands
Date of Loss 12/07/1941
Unit USS Oklahoma; UNITED STATES NAVY
https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000148w0qEAA

On September 15, 2016, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Electrician's Mate Third Class Don Ocle Neher, missing from World War II.

Electrician's Mate Third Class Neher, who joined the U.S. Navy from Kansas, served on the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) and was aboard the ship during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. He was killed in the attack, and while his remains were recovered from the ship following the incident, they could not be individually identified at the time. EM3 Neher was initially buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2015, modern forensic techniques prompted the reexamination and identification of EM3 Neher’s remains.

Electrician's Mate Third Class Neher is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/News-Releases/PressReleaseArticleView/Article/1337974/funeral-announcement-for-uss-oklahoma-sailor-killed-during-war-ii-neher-d/

Press Release | Oct. 10, 2017

Funeral Announcement For USS Oklahoma Sailor Killed During War II (Neher, D.)

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, recently accounted-for from World War II, are being returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Navy Electrician’s Mate 3rd Class Don O. Neher, 28, of Kansas City, Missouri, will be buried October 16 in Arlington National Cemetery, near Washington, D.C. On Dec. 7, 1941, Neher was assigned to the 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 Neher.

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 Neher.

In April 2015, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a policy memorandum directing the disinterment of unknowns associated with the USS Oklahoma. On June 15, 2015, DPAA personnel began exhuming the remains from the NMCP for analysis.

To identify Neher’s remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial (mtDNA) DNA analysis, which matched his family, anthropological analysis and dental comparisons, which matched Neher’s records, as well as circumstantial.

DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this recovery.

Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72, 990 service members (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II. Neher’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at an American Battle Monuments Commission site along with the other MIAs from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

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.

https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/Recent-News-Stories/Article/1146019/sailor-killed-in-world-war-ii-identified-neher/

News | April 10, 2017

Sailor Killed in World War II Identified (Neher)

Electrician's Mate 3rd Class Don O. Neher, has now been accounted for.

Neher, assigned to the USS Oklahoma, was killed Dec. 7, 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Interment services are pending.

For more information on DPAA please visit our website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call 703-699-1420.