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Remains of Burbank Marine killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941 are identified

Pfc. Walter L. Collier on Dec. 4, 1939.
Pfc. Walter L. Collier, seen in a Dec. 4, 1939, photo, was killed Dec. 7, 1941, in the attack on Pearl Harbor. His remains were recently identified and will be buried in Hawaii.
(Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
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The remains of a Marine from Burbank who was killed in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor have been identified and will be buried in Hawaii, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced.

Pfc. Walter L. Collier of Burbank was identified on May 25, but his family only recently received a full briefing, the agency said in a statement this week.

Collier was assigned to the battleship Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island when Japanese aircraft attacked. Multiple torpedo hits quickly caused the warship to capsize.

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Collier was among 429 crewmen killed, but his remains were among many that could not be identified for decades. Another California serviceman, 39-year-old Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Charles E. Hudson of Stockton, was identified earlier this year.

A reexamination of the unidentified remains from the Oklahoma began in 2015. Collier was identified through anthropological and mitochondrial DNA analysis, the agency said.

Collier will be buried Dec. 8 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

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