A bugler plays taps during a funeral held March 9, 2016, for Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke, a USS Oklahoma crew member, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. ( Wyatt Olson/ Stars and Stripes)
A bugler plays taps during a funeral held March 9, 2016, for Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke, a USS Oklahoma crew member, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. ( Wyatt Olson/ Stars and Stripes)
Family members watch as the casket of Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke, a USS Oklahoma crew member, is lowered into his grave March 9, 2016, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
Relatives of Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke -- niece Leeann Michalske (right) and Marilyn Gardner, widow of Luke's nephew -- prepare to drop Hawaiian leis onto his lowered casket during a funeral held March 9, 2016, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. (Wyatt Olson / Stars and Stripes)
The headstone for Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke, a USS Oklahoma crew member who died in the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Oahu. Luke lay in a grave marked for "unknowns" until his remains were recently identified. (Wyatt Olson/ Stars and Stripes)
Sailors prepare to fold the American flag that was draped over the casket of Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke, a USS Oklahoma crew member, during a funeral held March 9, 2016, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. (Wyatt Olson/ Stars and Stripes)
Rear Adm. John V. Fuller, commander of Navy Region Hawaii, presents the casket flag of Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke to his niece, Leeann Michalske, during a funeral at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, March 9, 2016. (Wyatt Olson / Stars and Stripes)
A photograph of Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke, a USS Oklahoma crew member, is displayed at a funeral held March 9, 2016, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. (Wyatt Olson/ Stars and Stripes)
Sailors carry the casket of Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke, a USS Oklahoma crew member who died in the Japanese surprise attack of 1941, to a funeral held March 9, 2016, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. (Wyatt Olson/ Stars and Stripes)
A sailor inspects the creases of the flag that had draped the casket of Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke, a USS Oklahoma crew member, during a funeral held March 9, 2016, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. (Wyatt Olson/ Stars and Stripes)
NATIONAL MEMORIAL CEMETERY OF THE PACIFIC, Hawaii — Petty Officer 1st Class Vernon T. Luke has been laid to rest after lying for more than seven decades in a grave marked for unknown sailors and Marines who died aboard the USS Oklahoma during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Luke was buried Wednesday at the Punchbowl cemetery with full military honors. His gravesite isn’t far from where his remains were disinterred last year for transfer to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which announced his identification in January.
Luke was a 43-year-old machinist’s mate when he died with more than 400 men on the Oklahoma after it capsized from multiple torpedo hits.
The unidentified remains of several hundred sailors and Marines who died on the ship during the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack have been exhumed and are undergoing identification work.
Attending the service were Luke’s niece LeeAnn Michalske, and Marilyn Gardner, the widow of his nephew.
Olson.wyatt@stripes.com Twitter: @WyattWOlson
