A U-S Navy sailor from Holding Township who died in the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th, 1941 is coming home after officials recently used D-N-A testing and other analysis to identify his remains. 22-year-old Navy Fireman 1st Class Elmer Kerestes was stationed on the U-S-S Oklahoma. His remains, buried in a plot at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, were unidentified for 74 years. He’s being returned to Minnesota tomorrow at MSP Airport and a full honors military funeral will be Saturday at Highland Cemetery in Holdingford.
Captain Nathaniel Strandquist, commanding officer of NOSC Minneapolis says, “We are privileged to be able to participate in this event, and consider it a sacred duty to provide final honors to our fallen shipmates. The fact that this is for someone who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor so many years ago proves how seriously our country takes this responsibility.”