U.S. Navy Seaman Second Class Challis James celebrated his eighteenth birthday three weeks before his death at Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941. He was serving aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma when several Japanese torpedoes slammed into its hull, forcing it to capsize. The ship became his grave.
Since James’ remains were later recovered but not identified, he was initially buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) disinterred the remains of James and other USS Oklahoma crewmen. DPAA identified James’ remains on Jan. 29, 2016.
Three of James’ nephews and their families came to Arlington National Cemetery on June 28, 2024, to bury the uncle they never knew. Navy Chaplain (Lt. Cmdr.) Doyl McMurray told the attendants, “Today we can only honor the kind of man that he was, and his family’s sacrifice of all of the potential that he had.” The chaplain then spoke about James’ obligation to the Navy. “With war on the horizon, he served anyway,” said McMurray. “In this, and in many ways, he demonstrated the Navy’s corps values of honor, courage, and commitment.”
James was the namesake of his nephew, Challis Elliott, who said after the funeral that his mother rarely spoke about her brother. “She just said that he was smart and artistic,” Elliott recalled. “All we have is a picture of his ship, and he wrote, ‘this is the boat I’m going to be on.’”
Elliott and his brothers, Wynn and Ty, considered reburying their uncle at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific but decided on Arlington National Cemetery. “We thought it was a great honor to be buried here,” Challis Elliott said.
U.S. Army story by Kevin Hymel
U.S. Army video by Daryl Vaca
2 июл 2024
