WASHINGTON, DC (WSAU) — US Military officials have confirmed the remains of three Wisconsin Brothers who were serving on the USS Oklahoma when it was torpedoed by the Japanese on December 7th, 1941.
On Friday, June 11th the Defense Department POW/MIA Accounting Agency officially identified the remains of 22-year-old Malcolm Barber, 21-year-old Leroy Barber, and 19-year-old Randolph Barber. The three were among the 420 service members serving on the ship when it was hit by torpedoes dropped from Japanese warplanes as it was stationed at Ford Island.
The remains of the brothers were not positively identified after the attack, so they were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific- known as the Punchbowl. Then in 2015, a new effort to identify unknown remains was undertaken by the Accounting Agency.
The trio was assigned to the same ship despite protocol dictation that close relatives serve on different vessels. According to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum; their father had requested that the three be split up just days before the attack.
A few years after their death a Navy destroyer escort was named in their honor- the USS Barber.
The Barbers were originally from New London, WI.
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