MINNEAPOLIS (AP) and KARE 11 - A Minnesota sailor killed at Pearl Harbor will be buried with full military honors Saturday at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
Navy Radioman 2nd Class Quentin Gifford, 22, of Mankato was killed in the Japanese aircraft attack on the battleship USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941.
The Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits and quickly capsized. More than 420 crew members were killed, including Gifford.
His remains eventually were buried along with other unidentified remains from the Oklahoma at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. Hundreds of those remains were dug up nearly three years ago for analysis.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency says DNA analysis was used to help identify Gifford's remains last July.
His body returned to Minnesota Friday afternoon. Waiting, were his two surviving siblings, Harold Gifford, 94, and June Shoen, 81.
"Unbelievable, overwhelming, something I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams," said Gifford. "My brother paid the price and he is getting a just reward with all these honors."
The siblings last saw their brother in 1940 when he was home on leave from the USS Oklahoma.
"He came to visit me, I was working on a farm, I quit high school to work, he came and chewed me out, made me went and finish high school, which I did. I owe my entire career in aviation to Quentin, because he said go back and finish high school, work hard, and when you are think you are working hard, work harder. Had it not been for that, my life would have been totally different," said Gifford.
Several dozen family members attended his long awaited homecoming, as crowds inside MSP airport pressed against the windows to glimpse the flag draped casket exiting the airplane, with Navy honors, and many salutes.
"He deserves to be here," said Shoen.