Fred Hunter Boyer was a United States Navy sailor who was killed on the USS West Virginia when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He was Tipton County, Indiana's first World War II casualty. His remains were recovered between December 1941 and November 1942. They were identified on June 11, 2024.
Background[]
Fred Hunter Boyer was born on October 21, 1918 in Indiana to Roy and Murta Boyer. Growing up, he had two younger brothers, Minor and Jeanne, as well as an older and younger sister, Ethel and June, respectively, who had predeceased him. In June 1940, Fred enlisted in the United States Navy and was assigned to the USS West Virginia. By the time of his death, he had attained the rank of Fireman First Class.
Pearl Harbor Attack[]
At about 7:48 AM on December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service conducted a surprise military strike against the United States at the naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The USS West Virginia was hit with torpedoes, but thanks to the crew taking counter-flooding measures, the ship came to a final rest on the shallow harbor floor and did not capsize. Fred was killed in the process, though his exact circumstances are not stated. His remains were located between 1941 and when the USS West Virginia was raised and being repaired in 1942, but not identified.
Overall, 2,335 Americans were killed in the attack, 106, including Fred, were on the USS West Virginia. The surprise attack led to US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to declare December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". The following day, the US Congress declared war on Japan which led to the United States' formal entry into World War II.
Aftermath[]
Fred was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. He was memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Between the day of the attack and 1944, many of those killed were individually buried at the Halawa Naval and Nuuanu Cemeteries. In September 1947, 1,516 sets of remains were disinterred to be identified at the Schofield Barracks Central Identification Laboratory. While dozens of identifications were made, many could not be identified for a variety of reasons. In October 1949, the American Graves Registration Service ruled those who remain unaccounted for as unrecoverable. The remains that could not be identified were then buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, AKA the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Before the start of the USS West Virginia Project in mid-2017, about 35 burials of 38 sets of unidentified remains were potentially associated with the USS West Virginia. Because only 25 USS West Virginia personal were listed as unaccounted for, this may suggest that crew members from other ships were killed on the USS West Virginia.
Identification[]
Between June and October of 2017, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began the USS West Virginia Project which led to the exhumation of the 38 sets of remains which are being reexamined by advanced forensic technology. Thanks to the advances of forensic technology, Fred Boyer's remains were identified on June 11, 2024. The DPAA announced his identification on July 18, 2024.
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