George Franklin Price was a United States Navy sailor who was killed on the USS Oklahoma when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. His remains were identified on August 3, 2021. He was the second USS Oklahoma sailor from Dallas City, Illinois to be identified, the first being Robert Harr.
Background[]
George Price was born in 1918 in Meredosia, Illinois to Leonard and Sarah Hignight Price. George grew up in Dallas City, Illinois. with ten other siblings, with another two predeceasing before he was born. His sisters were very close to him, with a niece later saying that, "They spoiled him. They took care of him, as only sisters could."
On May 19, 1940, George enlisted in the United States Navy from Dallas City. After completing training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, he was stationed on the USS Oklahoma as a Fireman First Class at the beginning of August 1940.
Pearl Harbor[]
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 Oklahoma was one of the first ships to be attacked. The ship was torpedoed and capsized, killing George in the process. His remains were located between 1941 and 1944, but not identified. As a result, he was considered missing in action while his remains were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii
Overall, 2,335 Americans were killed in the attack; 429, including George, were on the USS Oklahoma. 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[]
After his death, George was awarded the Purple Heart. His name is featured on the USS Oklahoma Memorial and on the Honolulu Memorial of the Courts of the Missing in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was memorialized in the Honolulu Memorial Courts of the Missing and at the USS Oklahoma Memorial in Honolulu, Hawaii.
In September 1947, the American Graves Registration Service was tasked to identify unknown soldier's remains from the Pacific Theatre. However, they were only able to identify 35 of the crewmen from the USS Oklahoma. In October 1949, the American Graves Registration Service ruled the remaining crew whose remains were not identified, as unrecoverable.
Identification[]
In 2015, the Department of Defense and the Defense POW/MIA accounting agency initiated a program to exhume the unidentified sailors of the USS Oklahoma to try and match their DNA against the DNA of family members whose loved ones were never identified. Scientists at the DPAA used anthropological analysis and scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis to identify the servicemen.
Through these methods, George Franklin Price was identified on August 3, 2021. His identification was announced on February 11, 2022.