Remembering a sailor lost in combat and to history: Charles Ogle returns home

Though lost twice to this world — once in combat and once in memory as an “unknown” sailor — Charles Ogle is lost no more.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Navy Fireman 1st Class Charles R. Ogle, (born in Goodsberry Township, Missouri in 1920) was assigned to the USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Ogle. Their unidentified remains were buried as “unknown”s in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. Until 2017, Ogle was one of those who was unidentified.