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Chillicothe sailor killed during attack on Pearl Harbor finally laid to rest

Musician First Class Joseph Hoffman was preparing to play the national anthem on the deck of the USS Oklahoma when it was slammed by torpedoes.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Time stopped for the family of Joseph Hoffman on Dec. 7, 1941.

Their son, a promising musician, was about to play the national anthem with his bandmates on the deck of the USS Oklahoma when tragedy struck. Multiple torpedoes had struck its hull.

"One of the surviving band members recalls hearing the explosions, seeing these strange airplanes and hearing the message over the loudspeakers: 'air raid man your battle stations.' Unfortunately for the band, their battle stations were below decks helping pass ammunition to the guns, so many of the band members went below deck into the hatches and were never heard from again," said Robert Leach of the Ross County Veterans Commission.

Leach is the local expert on Hoffman's life and explained how the bombing of Pearl Harbor made the attempt to rescue the USS Oklahoma difficult.

"It capsized in 12 minutes. They could hear banging against the hull of sailors trapped inside. Quickly they brought in acetylene torches and started cutting through the hull and were able to rescue about 35 sailors, but the problem was, as they were cutting in, they would suck the oxygen out of these compressed spaces and some of the sailors suffocated in an attempt to get them out," said Leach.

For 81 years a cenotaph in Greenfield Cemetery honored the life of Hoffman.

Hoffman's mother, father and brother died waiting for the identification of his remains.

"All they ever received from the Navy was 'missing in action presumed dead,'" said Leach. "I don't think anyone would have imagined it would take 81 years for him to finally come home."

Enter DNA, which became a game changer for our nation's missing and presumed dead.

"The Navy found a first cousin twice removed- that means Joseph's first cousin's grandson in Texas," said Leach.

That person's DNA gave life to Hoffman's remains, which sat in an unmarked grave in Hawaii.

Hoffman is believed to be one of the last sailors identified from the USS Oklahoma which lost 429 sailors during the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

On Saturday Hoffman's remains will be placed in a hearse and driven by his childhood home on Yoctangee Parkway and by the tree his brother Victor planted in his memory.

"It does prove that the U.S. government is serious when they make the claim, 'we will do whatever it takes to find an account for the remains of our war dead,'" said Leach.

You can see a full list of events honoring the life of Hoffman here:

Joseph Hoffman Obituary

Posted by City of Chillicothe, Ohio on Wednesday, August 17, 2022

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