Fireman 1st Class, US Navy

KIA during attack on Pearl Harbor Assigned to the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) moored @ Ford Island.

His remains were later identified. His remains will be buried @ Larned Cemetery near his late sister Nevin. At Larned, KS on 29 May 2021.

The Tiller and Toiler May 20, 2021, p. 1

Sailor Who Died at Pearl Harbor has Larned Connections

Late in April the Defense POW/MIA Accounting /agency announced that Navy Fireman 1st Class Harold Bates, 27, of Rush Center, Kansas, killed during World War II, was accounted for on February 5, 2021.

On December 7, 1941, Bates was assigned to the battleship 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 Bates. Bates was twenty-seven years old at the time. Bates' remains were never identified so he was subsequently buried in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific known as Punchbowl.

Since that time the POW/MIA Agency has worked to identify the remains of American military personnel that have died in action. Between June and November 2015, DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis. In addition, DNA analysis was used.

Larned resident, Judy Jennings, a niece of Bates, was one of those who provided DNA samples for the analysis. Judy's brother, Lyndell fox, was a nephew of Bates and is pictured below with Bates. Also, a nephew was Galen Fox. Their mother, Nevin Gates Fox, was a sister of Bates.

Bates' name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Bates will finally come home and be buried at 10 am, May 29, 2021, appropriately just before Memorial Day, in Larned Kansas.

He will not be buried with his parents in Rush Center.