LEHMAN; GERALD GEORGE
UNITED STATES NAVY
WORLD WAR II
MI
Individual Type Accounted For
Rank F3c
Service Number 3003476
Location Hawaiian Islands
Date of Loss 12/07/1941
Unit USS Oklahoma; UNITED STATES NAVY

https://dpaa-mil.sites.crmforce.mil/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt00000133s9SEAQ

On March 3, 2010, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC, now DPAA) identified the remains of Fireman Third Class Gerald George Lehman, missing from World War II.

Fireman Third Class Lehman, who joined the U.S. Navy from Michigan, was stationed on the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) and was aboard the ship during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. He was killed in the attack, and while his remains were recovered from the ship following the incident, they could not be individually identified at the time. F3 Lehman was initially buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2003, advances in forensic techniques prompted the reexamination and identification of F3 Lehman's remains.

Fireman Third Class Lehman is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/Recent-News-Stories/Article/601853/wwii-pearl-harbor-sailor-identified-lehman/

Press Release | June 10, 2010

WWII Pearl Harbor Sailor Identified (Lehman)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

He is Fireman Third Class Gerald G. Lehman, of Hancock, Mich., U.S. Navy. He will be buried Saturday in Hancock.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941, the battleship USS Oklahoma suffered multiple torpedo hits and capsized. As a result, 429 sailors and Marines died. Following the attack, 36 of these servicemen were identified and the remaining 393 were buried as unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 2003, an independent researcher contacted the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) with information he believed indicated that one of the USS Oklahoma casualties who was buried as an unknown could be positively identified. After reviewing the case, JPAC exhumed the casket and discovered that it contained Lehman’s remains.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of his sister and nieces -- in the identification of Lehman’s remains.

More than 400,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II died. At the end of the war, the U.S. government was unable to recover, identify and bury approximately 79,000 as known persons. They include those buried with honor as unknowns, those lost at sea, and those missing in action. That number also includes the 1,100 sailors entombed in the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Today, more than 72,000 Americans remain unaccounted-for from WW II.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to

account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at

http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.