After nearly 80 years as unknown soldiers, two Indiana brothers who died during the Pearl Harbor attack were laid to rest with gravestones.
On Tuesday, Harold and William Trapp were buried with full military honors at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
The Trapp brothers were raised in La Porte, Indiana, and joined the U.S. Navy in 1939. Carol Sowar, their niece, told Hawaii News Now that they joined and enlisted together, on the same day.
The brothers both served on the USS Oklahoma, which was torpedoed by Japanese fighter pilots on Dec. 7, 1941. In the aftermath, the ship sank, and 429 crewmen died.
The brothers went unidentified ever since, alongside hundreds of others who died in the attack. However, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has worked for decades to identify these unnamed victims. In November 2020, the agency identified the Trapp brothers using genetic and dental evidence.
At a Tuesday ceremony, twelve family members and 75 uniformed service members gathered to pay their respects to the two brothers. Each brother got a rendition of “Taps”, as well as a rifle salute. An American flag was folded over each casket and presented to Sowar and her son.
The brothers who once shared everything now also share a plot, one casket atop another.
