VA Agrees with Case Request to Change "Unknowns" Grave Inscriptions at Punchbowl

VA agrees with Case request to change ‘unknowns' grave inscriptions at Punchbowl

Congressman Ed Case (2nd District, Hawaii) says the Veterans Administration has responded positively to his request to change a gravemarking policy that will fulfill the wishes of a Pearl Harbor survivor and honor 36 "unknown" sailors who died during a wartime accident at the harbor's West Loch in 1944.

"The VA's decision will finally help Ray Emory to complete a long campaign to honor the memory of his fellow Pearl Harbor sailors who rest beneath ‘unknown' markers at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. And the decision to cut through the red tape that has prevented this from happening, until now, will allow our nation to honor these ‘unknown' sailors with more appropriate inscriptions on their gravemarkers," said Case.

For many years, Pearl Harbor survivor Ray Emory has been trying to convince the Veterans Administration's National Cemetery Administration to change the inscriptions on 36 graves of sailors buried at the National Cemetery of the Pacific which are marked today only with the word "Unknown."

Emory has documented proof that the 36 sailors died in a series of explosions and fires while unloading munitions at West Loch, Pearl Harbor on May 21, 1944. Emory, a historian who resides in Kahala, Hawaii, has wanted the VA to add information on the gravemarkers noting the location and date of the sailors' deaths but the VA has refused, citing a policy that allows replacement markers only if an identification is made, a mistake was made in the inscription, or damage or weathering requires a replacement.

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http://wwwc.house.gov/case/press_releases/2006/2006-31.html