Two Boys. One Surprise Attack. 84 Years to Come Home.

On December 7, 1941, Japan's surprise assault on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 Americans. Among them: two young men aboard the USS West Virginia who spent the better part of a century listed as unknown.

Now they have names.

Royle Bradford Luker was 17 years old. A Fireman Third Class from Arkansas. He died when Japanese aircraft swarmed Battleship Row and the West Virginia took multiple torpedo hits, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). His remains were eventually interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific — but as an unknown. His name was carved into the Courts of the Missing there.

Nearly 84 years later, he has a name again.

According to WHMI, the DPAA officially accounted for Luker on May 29, 2024, after exhuming caskets and running modern forensic and DNA testing. He will be buried with full military honors in Plainview, Arkansas, on May 30, alongside his parents. His father, George F. Luker, was himself a World War I veteran. Two generations of Americans who answered the call.

The Second Sailor: Paul Eugene Newton

The other identification is Paul Eugene Newton, 20, of Indiana — also assigned to the USS West Virginia, according to Hawaii News Now.

Newton's family had long assumed his remains were simply gone. Lost to the harbor. Lost to history.

They were wrong.

The DPAA tracked down Rebecca Schmale, Newton's closest living relative, who lives in Greenville, South Carolina. She told FOX Carolina she first got an email from a Navy consultant — and her brothers told her it was a scam. She responded anyway.

"Two civilians and a dressed military officer from the Navy sat down and spent hours with us going through the DNA analysis, which is so extensive," Schmale said. "And I think my feelings were just shocked that the government would continue after 85 years to ensure that remains are returned to the family."

Newton will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, with over 40 family members attending.

How the Science Works

The DPAA didn't just run a quick cheek swab and call it a day. According to Hawaii News Now, scientists used anthropological analysis, dental analysis, circumstantial evidence, mitochondrial DNA testing, AND Y-chromosome DNA testing to confirm Newton's identity.

For Luker, the DPAA exhumed multiple caskets from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and cross-referenced DNA samples against living relatives, according to WHMI.

This is painstaking, expensive, years-long work.

106 Dead on One Ship

The USS West Virginia was struck by multiple torpedoes during the attack. Damage control crews flooded compartments on the opposite side of the ship to prevent capsizing. It worked — the ship settled on the harbor floor instead of rolling over. But 106 crew members were still killed, according to the DPAA.

Luker and Newton are among the ones who finally have names again. Many others still don't.

The Broader Picture

The DPAA has a backlog of roughly 81,500 Americans still unaccounted for from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War, and the Gulf Wars, according to the agency's own figures. Luker and Newton represent two names crossed off a list that remains devastatingly long.

The technology exists. The DNA databases are growing. The question is whether the funding and the political will exist to keep this work moving at scale — or whether it gets quietly defunded the next time Congress tackles the defense budget.

What This Means

Royle Bradford Luker was 17. He wasn't old enough to vote. He served anyway.

Paul Eugene Newton was 20. His family spent 84 years not knowing where he was.

Both men are finally going home.

This Memorial Day weekend, while the barbecues fire up and the traffic backs up on the highway, two families in Arkansas and Greenville, South Carolina, are standing at gravesites finally getting to say goodbye.

The least the rest of us can do is know their names.

Royle Bradford Luker. Paul Eugene Newton. USS West Virginia. December 7, 1941.