The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.

Friday, November 11, 2022

Identifying USS Oklahoma Unknowns: Francis Bud Hannon

Since this is Veterans Day, I am writing about veterans in all but one of my blogs.

From the November 9, 2022, KHON Channel 2 Hawaii "Project Oklahoma identifies Pearl Harbor  casualties" by Kristine Uyeno.

There has been a touching tribute after eighty years for the family of Francis Bud Hannon.

"My dad was waiting in California.  He was in the Army," explained  Hannon's second cousin Vanessa Helming.  "And he and Bud were to take their R&R together.  And Bud was at Pearl Harbor, and Dad said as soon as he heard that Pearl Harbor had been hit, he knew that Bud was no longer with us."

Hannon was one of  more than  400 sailors killed aboard the USS Oklahoma.  He was just 20 years old and in the service just two years.

"It was an extreme loss to the family, extreme loss to his parents, my grandparents," Helming said.  "It was just overwhelming.

Some of Bud Hannon's remaining relatives traveled recently to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on at the Punchbowl in Oahu where he had been buried for decades as an unknown.  But now, his remains have been identified.

A Wonderful Thing Our Government Is Doing.  


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