GRANDVILLE, Mich. — Grandville native Seaman 2nd Class Raymond Boynton was killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, while serving aboard the USS Oklahoma. He was considered missing in action for decades—until recently.
His remains have been identified, and the Navy successfully tracked down the sailor’s family.
“He’s my uncle on my mom's side,” Harry Zies said. “She told us a little bit about him. Of course, he died in 1941, and that was before I was born.”
Zies, who lives in Weatherford, TX, reflected on stories shared by his mom about her late brother. But Zies admitted he never knew much about his uncle.
“I know he enlisted in the Navy when he was 18, and then of course Pearl Harbor,” he said. “I think he was 19 when he died on the Oklahoma.”
Now, Zies is becoming more familiar with Boynton, as the only surviving relative of a sailor killed at Pearl Harbor.
“The Navy initially, when they started the process in 2015 identifying the remains, they got a hold of one of my distant uncles, and that's where they obtained the DNA from. Then, they started the process of going through the family tree,” Zies said. “The Navy had a representative come to my house and explain the situation that they'd found his remains, and they wanted to have him buried.”
Zies said his mom, who passed away in 2013, always held onto hope that her brother was still alive, even years after Boynton was declared missing in action.
“When I was in the military, I took Namba Station to Vietnam, I took an R & R to Hawaii, and I went aboard the memorial out there in the harbor for the USS Oklahoma,” Zies said. “I was able to find his name on the list on a plaque and was able to take a picture of it and give it to my mom, so that was a little bit of closure that she got to have.”
He said the recent update came as a major surprise, not only that the remains had been identified 82 years after Boynton’s death, but that modern technology allowed the Navy to find his family.
“It's quite amazing to think they went through all that,” Zies said. “I think it's an honor for the state or even the city that he was from, knowing they found his remains and he's been put to rest finally.”
Zies opted to have his uncle’s remains buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. The burial ceremony will take place Wednesday, March 20.
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