WASHINGTON –
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that Navy Seaman 2n.d Class Stanley C. Galaszewski, 29, of Steubenville, Ohio, killed during World War II, accounted for May 23, 2022.
On December 7, 1941, Galaszewski was assigned to the battleship USS California, docked at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese planes. The USS California received several torpedo and bomb hits, which caused a fire and slow flooding. The attack on the ship resulted in the death of 104 crew members, including Galaszewski.
From December 1941 to April 1942, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently buried at Halawa and Nu’uanu Cemeteries.
In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen US personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) retrieved the remains of US casualties from two cemeteries and moved they are at the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. Laboratory staff were only able to confirm the identities of 39 men from the USS California at that time. AGRS subsequently interred the unidentified remains at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified 25 Unknowns as irredeemable, including Galaszewski.
In 2018, DPAA personnel unearthed 25 USS California Anonymous from Punchbowl for analysis.
To identify Galaszewski’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis. In addition, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR), and autosomal DNA (auSTR) analysis.
Galaszewski’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing in Punchbowl, along with others lost in WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to show that he is accounted for.
Galaszewski will be buried on Nov. 3, 2023 in Steubenville, Ohio.
For family and funeral information, contact the Navy Service Casualty office at (800) 443-9298.
The DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of the Navy for their cooperation in this mission.
