Independence Sailor killed in WWII identified

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (KCRG) - On Thursday, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPPA) announced that 20-year-old Navy Seaman 1st Class David F. Tidball was killed during World War II and on March 3rd, 2021, was accounted for.

Tidball was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma on Dec 7th, 1941 at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked and capsized. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen including Tidball.

In 1947, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) that were tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific, found the remains of U.S. casualties from two cemeteries and transferred them to a laboratory for identification.

Laboratory staff could only confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at the time.

In 2015, DPAA personnel exhumed the unknown bodies from the USS Oklahoma for analysis. Scientists identified Tidball’s remains through mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA analysis.

Tidball will be buried on May 14th, 2022 in his hometown of Independence, and a rosette will be placed next to his name on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl to indicate he has been accounted for.

More information on Tidball can be found here.

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