MINGO COUNTY, WV (WOWK) – A Navy sailor from West Virginia who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor will finally be laid to rest in his family’s cemetery this weekend.

World War II Navy Fire Controlman 2nd Class Donald R. McCloud will be laid to rest at 1 p.m. May 20, 2023, in the McCloud Family Cemetery at East Fork of Twelve Pole Creek in Mingo County, West Virginia, according to the Navy Office of Community Outreach. His burial had originally been scheduled for June 2023.

The DPAA first announced in December 2022 that the remains of World War II Navy Fire Controlman 2nd Class Donald R. McCloud had finally been identified. McCloud, a native of Monaville in Logan County, West Virginia, was just 21 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. He was one of the 429 crewmen who lost their lives on the USS Oklahoma that day.

His remains were among those recovered and buried in the Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries in Hawaii. When the remains were removed by the American Graves Registration Service in 1947, McCloud was not among those who could be identified. He was listed among 47 servicemembers whose remains were classified as “non-recoverable.”

Those “non-recoverable” remains were moved for further analysis in 2015, and with the use of dental and anthropological records and mitochondrial DNA analysis McCloud was identified and accounted for the following year.

While accounted for in 2016, McCloud’s family received their full briefing on his identification in 2022. The information was not publicized until after the family’s briefing.

McCloud was born in Wayne, West Virginia on Nov. 18, 1920, and raised in Monaville. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in April 12, 1938.

McCloud’s military awards and decorations include the Purple Heart Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medal (with Fleet Clasp), the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with Bronze Star), the World War II Victory Medal, and the American Campaign Medal.