Remains of Grayslake sailor killed at Pearl Harbor to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery

The remains of a sailor from Grayslake who was killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery later this month.

Navy Fireman Third Class Herbert B. Jacobson likely was asleep in his bunk aboard the USS Oklahoma battleship after working an overnight shift when the attack began on Dec. 7, 1941, his nephew Brad McDonald of North Carolina said.

The Oklahoma capsized after sustaining multiple torpedo hits. Of the 2,402 Americans killed during the Pearl Harbor attack, 429 were on the Oklahoma.

The remains of Jacobson and other deceased sailors on the Oklahoma who could not be identified at the time were buried in Hawaii and classified as nonrecoverable.

But in late 2019, members of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency informed McDonald and the rest of Jacobson's family that they had found his remains using new DNA analysis technology.

"I can't praise the people involved enough," McDonald said.

McDonald said the experts used DNA donated from Jacobson's family members to help identify his remains.

Now those family members and more will gather from across the country at Arlington, Virginia, for the burial Sept. 13.

The burial had been scheduled for the spring of 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the meantime, more of Jacobson's remains have been identified by experts so they will have more of him to bury, McDonald said.

"It is a major sense of closure," McDonald said. "The family has always had a rough time that he was just considered missing in action, presumed dead."

Jacobson's name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, along with other military personnel listed as missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate his remains have been identified.