Pearl Harbor Victims Wayne And Paul Newton Honored In Indiana

Indiana Servicemen Lost At Pearl Harbor Are Finally Being Laid To Rest

Wayne and Paul Newton were cousins from northern Indiana who enlisted in the Navy. Wayne is from Terre Haute and was a first-class seaman aboard the USS California. Paul resided in Romney, Indiana, and was also a first-class seaman, but he was stationed aboard the USS West Virginia. Due to already ongoing conflicts with Japan over our invasion of Manchuria, the United States moved the USS California to Pearl Harbor to deter further aggression from Japan. That was the plan, anyway. The US Pacific Fleet consisted of 150 vessels at that time, with the majority of them already at Pearl Harbor or being moved there at the time of the bombing. A total of 21 ships were sunk, beached, or crippled that day, the majority of which still had many sailors aboard at the time of sinking or destruction. Wayne was aboard the California, and Paul was aboard the West Virginia, at the time of the bombing. They have been listed as MIA (missing in action) until forensic science advanced enough to identify their remains.

Navy POW/MIA Media Liason

How Forensic Advances Have Allowed "Unknowns" To Be Identified

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Navy salvage operations began the daunting task of sifting through what was left and attempting to locate the remains of those fallen soldiers. Science in the 1940's was obviously not what it is today, but the Navy had the foresight to save the remains anyway. Remains were removed from the wreckage following the attack. While some were identified, many were buried as "unknowns" at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii. By 2018, science had advanced enough for some of these remains to be identified. Thanks to this advancement, 25 "unknowns", including these two Indiana sailors, were able to be identified and properly laid to rest. Wayne will be laid to rest in Terre Haute, while Paul will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.