article_snippet.sent: (CNN)Remains of up to nearly 400 unaccounted for service members tied to USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor will be exhumed this year, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.
article_snippet.sent: The hope is that most of the battleship's sailors and Marines can be identified.
article_snippet.sent: The secretary of Defense and I will work tirelessly to ensure your loved one's remains will be recovered, identified, and returned to you as expeditiously as possible, and we will do so with dignity, respect and care," Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work said in a statement.
article_snippet.sent: While not all families will receive an individual identification, we will strive to provide resolution to as many families as possible.
article_snippet.sent: Thirty-five crew members were positively identified and buried in the years immediately after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, according to the Defense Department.
article_snippet.sent: By 1950, all unidentified remains were laid to rest as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
article_snippet.sent: The retiree mission to ensure graves are properly identified.
article_snippet.sent: Next of kin were being notified starting Tuesday.
article_snippet.sent: Service members who are identified will be returned to Service members who are identified families for burial, with full military honors.
highlights_snippet.sent: Hundreds of crew members were buried without identification .