80 Years Later, Grayslake Sailor Killed At Pearl Harbor Laid To Rest

GRAYSLAKE, IL — The family of a local marine killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II finally got the chance to officially mourn his loss during a burial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Tuesday.

Herbert Jacobson, a 21-year-old Navy fireman from Grayslake, was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was attacked by a Japanese aircraft on Dec. 7, 1941, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. The ship sustained several torpedo hits, causing it to quickly capsize.

All 429 crewmen on board, including Jacobson, died. But it took the military until Oct. 17, 2019, to officially identify Jacobson's remains.

On Tuesday, more than 80 years after Jacobson was killed, family members who knew of Jacobson but never met him, got to pay their respects in a memorial service at Arlington. His remains were interred during the ceremony, according to the Associated Press.

“This has kind of been an unsolved mystery and it gives us closure to finally know what happened to Bert, where he is and that he’s being finally laid to rest after being listed as an unknown for so long,” Brad McDonald, a nephew of Jacobson, told the Associated Press.

During a typical Navy ceremony, there is a the "honorable transfer" of a flag-draped casket by the Navy Honors Detail to the soldier's gravesite, Gene H. Hughes, public affairs specialist for the Navy Personnel Command Public Affairs, told Patch in an email response. The service also typically includes remarks from a Navy chaplain, Admiral or a clergy that the family has requested.

During the ceremony, there is a ceremonial folding of the flag, which is then presented to the family, and a 21-gun salute and playing of "Taps," Hughes said.

Decades Later: How Jacobson Was Identified

The process of officially identifying Jacobson took nearly 80 years. Here's how officials went about making that happen:

• For 2.5 years following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the crew aboard the USS Oklahoma and buried them in the Halawa and Nu'uanu Cemeteries.
• In September 1947, the American Graves Registration Service was tasked with exhuming those killed during the attack and officially identifying them. The Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks identified 35 men at that time on the USS Oklahoma. They buried the remaining unidentified crewmen at 46 different plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, and two years later, a military board classified those who could not be identified, including Jacobson, as non-recoverable.
• Between June and November 2015, Navy personnel again exhumed the remains and scientists used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomal analysis, this time.
• On Oct. 17, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Jacobson had been officially accounted. His name has been recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with others who are still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.