After almost 80 years, Wallace Gregory Mitchell, a seaman first class in the U.S. Navy, has finally returned home.
Mitchell, 19, serving on the U.S.S. Oklahoma, was killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. More than 2,300 Americans died that day, 429 of whom were on the Oklahoma when it capsized after being struck by nine torpedoes.
In the carnage of the battle, many sailors were recovered but could not be immediately identified, several not until more recent advances were made in DNA technology.
Recently, Mitchell was identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and, on Tuesday, his remains were flown to John Wayne Airport so he could be laid to rest this week closer to his family.
“It is amazing after all these years,” Mitchell’s now 95-year-old sister, Marjorie (Mitchell) Snykers, said, speaking on the phone from her home in Rancho Santa Margarita. “I never thought that it would ever come to a conclusion, or sort of a conclusion in my lifetime.”
Snykers was joined at the airport Tuesday with her children, Scott Snykers, 64, of Mission Viejo, and Kristin Etter, 68, of Aliso Viejo, to meet the plane transporting Mitchell from Hawaii. He had been buried with other unidentified sailors from the Oklahoma at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
An honor motorcade accompanied them to a Laguna Hills mortuary, with law enforcement and firefighters on overpasses and along the route saluting Mitchell, who will be buried on Friday at Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego.
“It’s bitter-sweet,” Scott Snykers said. “We were overjoyed that we were able to identify his remains. My mom is so happy that he is being honored individually in this way.”
Marjorie Snykers has clear memories of her childhood growing up with her big brother in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
“He was my only sibling, so we were very close,” said Snykers, who is four years younger than her brother.
She recalls taking family vacations in Laguna Beach, where the family rented cabins at Sleepy Hollow Beach.
“He was a good swimmer,” Snykers said.
She also said her brother was a gifted writer and cartoonist and had aspirations of becoming a sportswriter.
In 1940, Mitchell was awarded the Wallace Helms Olympic Athletic Foundation Medal award for best all-city high school sportswriter.
In July 1940, Mitchell enlisted in the Navy.
“He joined the Navy, I think, with the idea that he would be going to different ports and getting different experiences,” Snykers said.
She still remembers vividly the day news broke of the Pearl Harbor attack.
“Oh boy, do I,” she said. “When we had heard about it, we didn’t really know how very serious it was. It was about three weeks before we heard anything.”
On a Sunday morning in late December, Snykers was eating breakfast when a telegram arrived.
“My dad said as soon as he saw it, he knew what it was,” Snykers said.
The telegram informed the family Mitchell was missing “following action in the performance of his duties and in the service of his country.”
About six weeks later, a second telegram: “After an exhaustive search, it has become impossible to locate your son, Wallace Gregory Mitchell. He has therefore been officially declared to have lost his life in the service of his country on Dec. 7, 1941. The department expresses to you its sincerest sympathy.”
Snykers recalls “horrible” nightmares where she was searching in the ocean for her brother.
Described by the Naval History and Heritage Command as the “largest of the Pearl Harbor salvage jobs,” the process of righting the Oklahoma took from 1942 to ’44.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, recovered remains were interred in the Halawa and Nu’uanu cemeteries until 1947, when the American Graves Registration Service started an effort to identify the fallen.
However, only 35 men from the Oklahoma could be identified at the time.
Mitchell and the others still unidentified were considered missing in action and their remains were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, ultimately classified as non-recoverable.
In recent years, more advanced methods have given scientists a greater ability to identify those remaining.
In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency partnered with the Department of Defense to begin a new effort to match their DNA against samples from family members whose loved ones were never identified.
When the Navy initially reached out to Snykers about attempting to identify her brother, she was reluctant, Scott Snykers said.
Then, in December 2019, Scott Snykers was contacted by a forensic genealogist working with the Navy. He agreed to provide a DNA sample with a swab of his cheek.
In February, the family was notified that Mitchell has been successfully identified.
“I think it’s absolutely amazing,” Etter said. “I grew up hearing my mom tell stories of Uncle Wallace up to World War II time and when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.”
Coincidentally, Wallace Mitchell and Etter share the same birthday of May 6.
“I’ve always had a little bit of a spiritual connection with my Uncle Wallace,” Etter said.
Etter said she feels happy for all the loved ones whose fallen are finally being identified, especially her mother.
“It’s a cool thing that we have the science and technology to identify, not only World War II vets, but Korean War vets and Vietnam missing in action and POWs,” she said. “I’m glad my mom lived long enough to see that.”