Members of the Wichita Navy Reserve carry the casket of Rex E. Wise toward a hearse at the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita on Tuesday.
A World War II Navy veteran was laid to rest in Braman, Oklahoma, on Wednesday, 79 years and 10 months after he died in service to the United States.
Rex E. Wise, a Navy Fireman 1st Class who was killed in the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii, was buried at the Braman Cemetery during a military funeral that morning. Braman is approximately 83 miles east of Alva.
Wise was a resident of South Haven, Kansas, approximately 10 miles north of Braman. He was stationed onboard the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu on Dec. 7 when Japanese aerial forces bombed the harbor, the impetus for the United States to enter World War II. Wise was one of 429 men onboard the USS Oklahoma who died in the attack.
He was 21 years old at the time.
Personnel with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified Wise’s remains on Oct. 17, 2019 after examining his dental records, the agency said in a news release.
The Navy presented Wise’s casket to funeral directors with Roberts and Sons Funeral Home of Blackwell at Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Wichita during the ceremony Tuesday. Wise’s casket was escorted to the funeral home in Blackwell following the ceremony