Family members are calling on the US military to use new DNA analysis techniques to identify unknown sailors and Marines who died on the USS Arizona, the Associated Press reports.
It notes that the Arizona suffered the highest loss of life during the attack on Pearl Harbor as 1,177 people died aboard the ship. While about 900 individuals went down with the ship and remain there, 85 others were buried without being identified, and the AP says that family members of those lost on the Arizona are calling for the identification of those 85 using new DNA analysis techniques, including genetic genealogy.
However, the AP reports that the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has said it may not be practical to do so. Rear Admiral Darius Banaji, the deputy director of the agency, tells it that the agency lacks files for about half of the Arizona missing and has medical records for only about half of those. The military also only has DNA samples from 1 percent of family members of the Arizona missing, it says.
The AP adds that the use of genetic genealogy would require the military to develop new privacy protection policies.