Herbert “Bert” Jacobson was 21 when he died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Over 80 years later, he was finally laid to rest yesterday in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. He was one of 429 sailors and Marines on the battleship USS Oklahoma, who were killed in the attack.

In the years following the attack, only 35 of the 429 crew who died on Oklahoma were identified. In 2015, the Department of Defense announced that the unidentified remains of the crew members of Oklahoma would be exhumed for DNA analysis, with the goal of returning identified remains to their families.

In 2019, Jacobson family was notified that Bert’s remains had been identified. Hoping the burial could take place the next year, they were forced to wait, in large part because the COVID-19 pandemic delayed most gatherings, funerals included.

The Associated Press reports that the 2015 effort, Project Oklahoma, has led to the identification of 355 men — including Jacobson — who were killed when their ship was hit by at least nine torpedoes. That leaves 33 sets of remains still to be identified. To mark the 80th anniversary of the attack, those unidentified remains were reinterred, said Gene Hughes, a public affairs officer with Navy Personnel Command. He has worked with the families of those killed on the Oklahoma, including Jacobson’s relatives.

“This has kind of been an unsolved mystery and it gives us closure to finally know what happened to Bert, where he is and that he’s being finally laid to rest after being listed as an unknown for so long,” said Brad McDonald, a nephew.

Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.