Over eight decades after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, Ensign Stanley W. Allen, a naval aviator, was finally laid to rest in his home state of Maine. A funeral with full military honors was held at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Augusta on Tuesday, attended by family members.
Ensign Allen, who was 25 at the time of his death, perished aboard the USS Oklahoma during the Japanese surprise attack on December 7, 1941. His remains were previously interred among the unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. He was one of 429 sailors who died on the battleship when it capsized after being hit by multiple torpedoes, trapping many below deck.
Trained to pilot a spotter float plane, Ensign Allen was assigned to Observation Squadron One after completing his training at Naval Air Station Pensacola. He had enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserves in Boston in 1940, having graduated from Bowdoin College.
Ensign Allen's identification was made possible through a 2015 program dedicated to disinterring and analyzing the DNA of previously unidentified service members from the USS Oklahoma. Of the 388 initially unidentified, over 350 have now been identified.
