A procession is planned to accompany the remains of U.S. Navy Fireman 1st Class Fred H. Boyer to Tipton County, nearly 85 years after his death at Pearl Harbor and his return to the small town where he was born.
Boyer was 23 years old and a fireman aboard the USS West Virginia when Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. He was one of 106 crew members killed in the attack.
Boyer was identified in July 2024. His remains are expected in Tipton as part of a planned procession.
A Career Cut Short at Pearl Harbor
Boyer was born in Kempton on October 21, 1918, and enlisted in the Navy in Indianapolis in September 1940. He reported to the USS West Virginia about two months later and was a Fireman 1st Class by the time of the attack. As a Navy fireman, Boyer stood engineering watches, helped with ship security and maintenance, and assisted with fuel and supply transfers.
He is scheduled to be buried with full military honors on September 30 at Kempton Cemetery in Tipton County, where he will rest alongside his parents. Boyer was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal, the station's report notes.
How Decades of Anonymity Ended
Unidentified remains associated with the USS West Virginia were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. In 2017, 35 caskets of unidentified remains were disinterred from the cemetery as efforts continued to identify the ship's unidentified sailors.
DPAA anthropologists and Armed Forces Medical Examiner System scientists ultimately confirmed Boyer's identity using dental comparisons, anthropological analysis, and mitochondrial DNA testing, per WOWO. DPAA later disinterred unidentified remains associated with the ship for identification. Boyer's name remains engraved on the Walls of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, where a bronze rosette will now be placed beside it to signify he is no longer unaccounted for.
Procession Route Shifts for Roadwork
Organizers altered Wednesday's escort procession route into Tipton, redirecting vehicles off U.S. 31 onto 276th Street in Hamilton County because of fresh chip-and-seal roadwork on 296th Street, according to Young-Nichols Funeral Home. The Indiana State Police assisted with planning the procession as it made its way toward the small Tipton County community where Boyer grew up.
Boyer's identification was part of a federal effort to identify remains from World War II. In his case, scientists used forensic analysis and DNA testing to confirm his identity.
Boyer is scheduled to be laid to rest beside his parents at Kempton Cemetery next week, nearly 85 years after he died at Pearl Harbor. The burial with full military honors will close a chapter that began on a burning battleship in Pearl Harbor.
