WWII sailor returns to Alabama almost 80 years after death

Photos and stories handed down were all members of Navy Fireman Second Class Ralph Curtis Battles' family had of the sailor killed Dec. 7, 1941, in the attack on Pearl Harbor, until he was positively identified and repatriated for burial alongside family members at Hillcrest Cemetery in Boaz, Ala. His photo was displayed at the graveside service with full honors Saturday, and his cremains were interred at the site. (Donna Thornton/The Gadsden Times via AP) Photos and stories handed down were all members of Navy Fireman Second Class Ralph Curtis Battles' family had of the sailor killed Dec. 7, 1941, in the attack on Pearl Harbor, until he was positively identified and repatriated for burial alongside family members at Hillcrest Cemetery in Boaz, Ala. His photo was displayed at the graveside service with full honors Saturday, and his cremains were interred at the site. (Donna Thornton/The Gadsden Times via AP)

By DONNA THORNTON / The Gadsden Times via The Associated Press September 5, 2021 6 min read

BOAZ, Ala. (AP) – As the nation learned more about the military personnel killed in Aug. 26’s suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan, a family in Boaz laid to rest a young sailor killed almost 80 years ago in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The site of the fight and the weapons of war may be very different, but the sacrifice was the same.

Navy Fireman Second Class Ralph Curtis Battles, 25, was on board the USS Oklahoma Dec. 7, 1941, and for decades he’s been buried as an unknown in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, nicknamed “the Punchbowl.”

Battles was born June 7, 1916, nephew Ralph Shell said in his eulogy Aug. 28. One month earlier, the USS Oklahoma, where Battles served, was commissioned, he said.

“Both were 25 years old,” he said, on Dec. 7, 1941. “They died together.”

Shell said none of the family members present had the opportunity to know Battles. “He was taken too soon. But we knew him,” he said, through family members who did and had told of the young sailor’s death.