One Maine sailor has finally been buried more than 80 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor. On board the USS Oklahoma, more than 400 people lost their lives. Up until recently, Stanley Willis Allen, a resident of Bethel, was one of the hundreds whose identities were unknown.
Tuesday afternoon, Allen was laid to rest at the Central Maine Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Augusta.
Although no one in attendance knew Allen personally, according to Rear Admiral Mike Brown, who oversaw the event, his accomplishments were sufficient to bring people in.
“We knew he was part of the greatest generation, we knew he volunteered for the Navy, that he served honorably, and we knew he paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to his country,” Brown added. And because of those reasons, we had such a large attendance today. “And those things are as meaningful in 2023 as they were in 1941.”
Allen, a Bethel native, worked at the Bethel Inn, the Kimball House in Northeast Harbor, and the Bethel Restaurant after graduating from Bowdoin College with a bachelor’s degree.
He went to Boston in 1940 to join the Naval Reserve, eventually rising to the rank of naval pilot on the Oklahoma.
He would pilot the aircraft in charge of scouting and assisting the ship’s long-range weaponry.
The tweet below verifies the news:
WATCH: A sailor from Maine who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor was laid to rest back home Tuesday.
STORY: https://t.co/zac7NK2Sse pic.twitter.com/jhbmVb2odE
— CBS 13 News (@WGME) July 19, 2023
Like Allen, 388 sailors from Oklahoma perished in the attack but their identities were unknown. They were interred for many years at Honolulu’s National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
However, the Department of Defense declared in 2015 that the sailors will be resurrected for DNA testing. All but 32 were identified after comparison to relatives’ DNA, including Allen.
The Augusta ceremony was attended by several members of Allen’s extended family. Allen’s great-aunt Jennifer Gelwick-Luecke, a Portland resident, was unable to attend. She claims that neither Allen nor his de@th was known to her family, but she is appreciative of the Navy’s efforts to bring him home.
“We’re so honored and just relieved that he’s been identified and he finally can be laid to rest,” she said. “That’s, that’s a good feeling.”
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