JACKSON, Mississippi — Frank Sparks has a vague memory of his great-uncle, Navy Fireman 1st Class Jim H. Johnston, who was killed at Pearl Harbor in the attack on the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941.
“When he was killed, I was 3-4 years old,” the Lucedale resident said. “I hadn’t known him very well, so my recollection of him is not very much, but I did hear stories about him as he had grown up.”
The family recently learned that Johnston is coming home to Wesson and will be buried on the 75th anniversary of the day he died.
Johnston was assigned to the USS Oklahoma which arrived in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 6, 1940, and spent several months participating in exercises and conducting patrols. One day more than a year after its arrival, a fleet of Japanese carriers launched formations of dive bombers, torpedo planes and fighters against the vessels moored in Pearl Harbor.
The USS Oklahoma suffered 429 casualties and capsized quickly after sustaining damage from several torpedoes. Most of the dead were never identified.
Remains of as many as 400 sailors and Marines were collected during efforts to salvage the vessel, and most of them were buried as unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. That’s where they stayed until 2015, when the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency personnel exhumed these remains and as a result in advances in forensic and analytical capabilities, were able to identify Johnston.
“They got in touch with me,” Sparks said. “They had researched the family tree and found that I was the oldest living relative.”
Sparks and his brother both submitted a DNA sample, and he said they learned not long afterward that their great-uncle had been found.
“It hits you kind of strange when you’re notified all of a sudden after 75 years that they’ve identified him and they’ve offered to bring him home to anywhere we want to bring him to lay him to rest,” Sparks said. “That gives you kind of a warm fuzzy feeling.”
One order of business as they wait on Johnston’s return to Mississippi is to try to locate a photo of him. Sparks said he knows one exists, because he’s seen it, but he doesn’t know where it is.
“The Navy is taking care of all the details, and a Navy chaplain will come and do the service,” Sparks said. “From what they tell me, it will be a full military funeral.”
The funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 7. The remains are expected to arrive at Jackson International several days prior to the funeral, though the exact date is not yet known. There will be a Patriot Guard and law enforcement escort of the remains from the airport to the Riverwood Family Funeral Services in Brookhaven, and there will be a graveside service at the Wesson Cemetery.
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