Honolulu, Hawaii. (May 19, 2024): Staying faithful to the American military’s credo of “leave no one behind”, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and other attendees recently honored the life of Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Robert L. Corn, who was assigned to the USS Oklahoma when it was attacked by Japanese aircraft during World War II. In this photo by Air Force Staff Sergeant Jonathan McElderry, Sailors fold an American flag during his internment ceremony held at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

The DPAA’s mission is to recover unaccounted Department of Defense personnel listed as prisoners of war or missing in action from past conflicts anywhere in the world.

Although his remains were recovered from the ship, they could not be identified due to the limitations of science at the time. His remains were buried as “unknown” until advances in forensic techniques prompted the DPAA to reexamine the unknown remains associated with the Oklahoma and Seaman Corn's were eventually identified from among them.

Corn enlisted in the Navy in Portland, Oregon in 1936 and was assigned to the USS Oklahoma the following year. He was one of 429 crewmembers who were killed when a Japanese aircraft dropped a torpedo that struck the ship’s hull flipping her upside down. Survivors jumped off the ship into burning hot water as the ship quickly capsized and sank.

Born Robert Livingston Corn, Bob was born in Ashland, Oregon and graduated from Baker City High School in 1935. He enlisted in the Navy the next year and was one of the earliest casualties of the war.

Identifying his remains was the result of a relentless effort by the DPAA, its talented scientists, and an American public that demands that no one who served their country is left behind.