Teen sailor killed aboard USS West Virginia at Pearl Harbor identified after 82 years through DNA analysis
After more than eight decades, a 17-year-old Arkansas sailor who perished during the attack on Pearl Harbor is finally coming home to rest.
Royle Bradford Luker, a Fireman Third Class in the United States Navy, will be laid to rest with full military honors in Plainview, Arkansas, on May 30. He will be buried next to his parents, including his father, George F. Luker, who was a World War I veteran.
Luker served aboard the USS West Virginia, which was moored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when Japanese aircraft launched a surprise torpedo assault. The battleship was struck multiple times and eventually sank to the floor of the harbor. Luker was among the 106 crewmen killed in the attack.
He was just 17 years old at the time of his death.
For decades following the attack, Luker's remains were unidentified and interred as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. His name appeared on the Courts of the Missing there, a lasting tribute to service members whose bodies were never recovered or identified.
His case began to change in the years that followed, as advances in forensic science offered new hope for identifying fallen servicemen long after their deaths. In May 2024, more than 82 years after he was killed, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency officially accounted for Luker after exhumation and modern forensic and DNA testing matched his remains with DNA provided by living relatives.
The science that cracked the case depended on cooperation from his surviving family members, who shared their own DNA to help close a gap that had stretched across generations. Luker is survived by two nephews, Donald Bradford Henderson and John Luker, and a niece, Becky Downen Lensing, according to his obituary from Cornwell Funeral Homes.
"More than 80 years later, DNA from Royle Luker and a family's willingness to share their DNA bridged the gap between loss and knowing," his obituary stated. "He will now be returned home and laid to rest."
Luker's mother, Nettie Estelle David Luker, lived in Arkansas during his deployment, and family members said the young sailor was remembered "with pride and love."
In recognition of his service and ultimate sacrifice, Luker received numerous military honors, including the Purple Heart, awarded to service members wounded or killed in combat, and the Navy Presidential Unit Citation, which recognizes extraordinary heroism by military units under enemy fire. His full list of awards also includes the Gold Star Veteran designation, Combat Action Ribbon, Navy Expeditionary Medal, Navy Good Conduct Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, American Campaign Medal, and World War II Victory Medal.
His return to Arkansas marks the conclusion of a journey that began on a quiet Sunday morning in Hawaii more than 84 years ago, when an entire generation of young Americans was thrust into the opening hours of the Second World War. For the Luker family, it is the end of a long wait, and the beginning of a proper farewell.