USS Arizona Operation 85

05/25/2025

On this Memorial Day weekend we remember the men of the U.S.S. Arizona and their families, especially those who lost multiple sons to war.

Written by: Bobbi Jo Buhl The death of their sons at Pearl Harbor was just the first loss for 48 families of Arizona men. Other sons were killed during World

04/24/2025

Asia-Pacific DNA collection nears mark needed to exhume USS Arizona unknowns from Hawaii cemetery By Matthew M. Burke Matthew M. Burke Stars and Stripes • April 22, 2025

04/23/2025

We appreciate the Stars & Stripes recognizing the work of the past 2 years and how close we are from turning what the Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency called impossible into now the possible.

They still defend their ridiculous costs and slow process that their bureaucratic leadership has followed for decades but they will learn.

Congrats to all the families! 🇺🇸💪🏻

Asia-Pacific DNA collection nears mark needed to exhume USS Arizona unknowns from Hawaii cemetery By Matthew M. Burke Matthew M. Burke Stars and Stripes • April 22, 2025

04/15/2025

Back in 2022, the Navy claimed it would take $2.9 million, 10 years, and over 12,000 man hours just to locate DNA references for the Arizona’s 85 unknowns—calling it “impractical.” Operation 85 was told the effort wasn’t worth it. Worse, one suggestion was to simply collect the remains, place them in a box, and reinter them in the ship’s hull.

We refused to accept that.

Instead, we launched Operation 85 with one goal: find the families and get their DNA samples submitted. We did this:

Without government funding
With just a handful of volunteers
For under $70,000 in out-of-pocket costs
As of early 2025, we’ve raised the number of viable DNA references from just 18 to 592—with only 51 left to reach the Department of Defense’s minimum threshold to begin identification.

Under the old rules, only close maternal relatives (like a sister or niece on the mother’s side) were typically considered eligible to donate DNA. With SNP

03/27/2025

U.S.S. Arizona Captain Franklin Van Valkenburgh received the Medal of Honor posthumously, the citation reading in part: "for devotion to duty ... extraordinary courage, and the complete disregard of his own life."
December 7, 1941 - Never Forget

Franklin Van Valkenburgh was 17 when he was appointed a midshipman at the Naval Academy and 53 when he was killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

03/14/2025

02/13/2025

🚨HEARTBREAKING MILITARY SCANDAL🚨
Gov't Agency tasked with identifying missing American Service Members, STAGED FAKE "Coming Home" Ceremonies with Full Honors and empty flag-draped coffins. The General was demoted, yet somehow is back in charge as the civilian director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). Time for DOGE to clean house?

MORE INFO:
Kevin Kline, a grandnephew of a missing American WW2 service member has put his life on hold for over 2 years and funded an effort to do the research the DPAA is required but refuses to do... the agency calling it "too hard" and impractical. Kline, in just 2 years and with approx. $70k of his own money, has done what the US Navy said would take 10 years, $2.9 million and 12,600 man hours to do.

The DPAA, with an annual budget of approx. $200 million, is mandated by congress to locate/identify a minimum of 200 missing or unknown American service members each year, but has fell short of that minimum goal 8 out of the past 10 years, and under the current leadership is operating at an 80% Failure Rate.

Coupled with bureaucracy, out-dated DNA technology and methods, and inept leadership, the DPAA is set up for continued failure if nothing changes.

Kline is bringing attention for not only his own family member, but believes changes can be made to bring home thousands of other missing or unknown Americans from other wars and conflicts, bringing resolution for tens of thousands of families still waiting for DPAA to "Honor it's Nation's Promise."

It's not too late, but time is ticking.

WATCH THE FULL Roger Stone INTERVIEW HERE: https://x.com/ussarizona85/status/1863017542815465902

Visit Operation 85 Online at: http://USSArizona.navy

01/04/2025

: The push to identify those buried as Unknowns from the Pearl Harbor attack came largely from one man: retired Chief Boatswain’s Mate Ray Emory.

Ray, a long-time Hawaii resident who passed away in 2018 at 97, was a Pearl Harbor survivor himself. Aboard USS Honolulu, Ray saw the attack unfold on the morning of December 7, 1941. He manned his machine gun and fired back at enemy planes: https://allhands.navy.mil/Stories/Display-Story/Article/1840284/a-machine-gunners-story-during-the-pearl-harbor-attack/

Ray spent many years trying to get the US government to identify the remains of those killed that day, since hundreds had been unidentifiable upon recovery and buried as Unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) in Honolulu.

At first, Ray’s efforts were rejected, but he persevered. Thanks to legislation sponsored by the late US Rep. Patsy Mink of Hawaii, gravestones for USS Arizona Unknowns were marked with the name of their battleship. In 2003, Ray convinced the military to dig up a casket he believed, through meticulous research, contained the remains of USS Oklahoma service members. He was right, and that effort led to the identification of five sailors. In 2015, the decision was made to exhume and attempt to identify every USS Oklahoma Sailor and Marine buried as an Unknown at Punchbowl.

In all, the USS Oklahoma Project individually identified 362 of the ship’s 394 unaccounted-for personnel. The remaining 32 were accounted for via group identification: https://dpaa-mil.experience.crmforce.mil/Projects/s/wwii/ussoklahoma

This work is now being carried on by USS Arizona Operation 85, a grassroots effort started by Kevin Kline to identify the more than 85 USS Arizona Unknowns buried at Punchbowl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-82puIMWe8

Sources: https://www.cpf.navy.mil/newsroom/news/article/2665659/pearl-harbor-survivor-ray-emory-dies-at-97/
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2018/08/21/pearl-harbor-survivor-who-pushed-to-identify-unknowns-dies/

📷: Ray Emory receives the US Flag during the repatriation ceremony for Fireman First Class Charles Casto on Sept. 14, 2017. Casto was identified by the DPAA and reinterred at Punchbowl in the same plot with his brother, Richard Casto. Both were killed on the USS Oklahoma during the attack on Pearl Harbor. US Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Matthew J. Bruch.

12/01/2024

✊🏻 🇺🇸 Roger Stone sits down with Operation 85's own Kevin Kline to uncover shocking claims of corruption, document destruction, and mismanagement by U.S. Gov't related to American missing & unknowns. A must-watch exposé! 🇺🇸

For more info: www.USSArizona.navy

10/31/2024

Interested in tracking down your family member's military records and awards? Check out this video on Kevin's experience tracking down his uncle's medals and how you can do it too!!

Want to honor your family's WWII heroes by discovering their military medals and service records? This step-by-step guide shows you exactly how to locate and...

08/19/2024

Discover how Elvis Presley played a crucial role in preserving the legacy of the USS Arizona Memorial.

08/17/2024

🚨 Is the US Gov't Deliberately Holding Back the Use of Advanced DNA Technology that could help identify missing American service members?

For all of our Operation 85 family members that are considered non-viable Family Reference Samples by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), especially