Remains of Pearl Harbor sailor, uncle of Kewanna woman, identified 75 years later

Details

Published: Friday, 06 January 2017 16:55

The remains of a U.S. Navy sailor killed in the Pearl Harbor attack 75 years ago, have been identified and returned to Pensacola, Fla. to be buried Friday (Jan. 6).

The sailor, Walter Henry Sollie, is an uncle of Iris Plowman of Kewanna.

Navy Water Tender First Class Sollie will be placed at his final resting place at Barrancas National Cemetery, Pensacola, Friday.

Sollie, 37, of Atmore, Ala., died on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, when his ship, the USS Oklahoma, was attacked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. His unidentified remains have been buried for the past 75 years at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. He was identified earlier this year through a DNA match with relatives.

"My dad was also in the Navy and he was a Pearl Harbor survivor, he was there that day, an eye witness, and he did see his brother ship sunk," Mrs. Plowman told WEAR-TV of Pensacola. "So we always had that knowledge all our life. He was always a part of our family, even though he wasn't alive, we always remembered him and were aware of him."

The USS Oklahoma was moored off Ford Island when torpedo hits caused it to take on water. Before long, the ship capsized and 429 men died.

Mrs. Plowman told the television station that the identification of her uncle's remains and his return home has given the family a measure of comfort, more of a reason to celebrate than to grieve.

A total of 16 million Americans served in the military during the Second World War. Of these millions, 400,000 died and 79,000 of them remained unaccounted for. In the attack on Pearl Harbor alone, 2,335 heroes gave their lives in a single day, according to the Pearl Harbor Visitors Bureau. While the unidentified troops were listed as Killed In Action, their families were never given an actual body to bury at the time. Unable to differentiate between the many dead, the military set up a memorial at Pearl Harbor to honor the fallen soldiers.

Over the past few years, through the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), the remains of dozens of soldiers and sailors have been identified through DNA testing and returned to their hometowns.

Sollie was born Nov. 23, 1904, in Myrtlewood, Marengo Co Ala., to Frederick Ernest and Florence Vallie McCrary Sollie. He joined the Navy in 1923 and served until his death in 1941. He had served on the USS Pruitt, USS Huron, USS North Hampton, USS Maryland and finally, the USS Oklahoma.

He is survived by five nieces: Jean Bodiford, Greenville, Ala.; Carol West, Chuchula, Ala.; Iris (Bruce) Plowman, Kewanna Ind.; Betty (Tom) Turnipseed, Milton, Fla.; and Cindy (Frank) Mayes, New Orleans; and 2 nephews: Clifford (Betty) Allen, Mobile, Ala.; and Fred (Liz) Sollie, Jr, Clermont, Fla. He is also survived by 12 great-nieces and nephews and their children. He was preceded in death by his father; his sister, Nina Mae Cobb; and his son, Walter Carlyle Sollie.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations in honor of Walter Henry Sollie, to the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation (NAMF), or online at http://www.navalaviationfoundation.org/ways-to-give/charter-memoriam/ or via check to 1750 Radford Blvd, Suite B, NAS Pensacola, FL 32508.

A funeral service will be at 11 a.m., Friday, Jan. 6, at the Pensacola Aviation Chapel aboard NAS Pensacola. An interment will follow at Barrancas National Cemetery. Oak Lawn Funeral Home is entrusted with the arrangements.