
Recently a sailor from Siouxland was laid to rest eight decades and a year after his death. Sailor Storekeeper 3rd Class Harry E. Nichols was buried in Sioux City with military honors after perishing aboard the USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.


Nichols was killed along with his shipmates during the February attack and like many others, until recent technological capabilities became available he and others were not identified. But with new tests and DNA analysis Nichols was brought home to Sioux City where he had grown up and enlisted in WWII and buried next to his parents in a local cemetery.




Remaining relatives and family and members of local American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts attended the ceremony honoring his life and service on what turned out to be a nice day, as days preceding and later brought some storms rolling through the region. And for a family that never really knew what had happened to to this relative some closure and remembrance a long time in the making.
Jerry Mennenga
Sioux City, Iowa


