It took almost 77 years but a Lake Preston, SD sailor who died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is finally coming home.
Porter Rich was on the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941. 429 sailors and Marines died in the attack.
Many of the dead could not be positively identified at the time.
In 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs, along with the USS Oklahoma Project, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, began exhuming unidentified remains from the USS Oklahoma for DNA analysis.
Rich’s remains were recently identified.
Rich will be laid to rest in his hometown on March 31 at 2:00 p.m. at the Lake Preston High School Gymnasium.
The American Legion Post in Lake Preston, which is named in Rich’s honor, will participate in the service.
(KELO Radio contributed to this story)