Flags at all state office buildings will be lowered to half-staff this Saturday in honor of a Kentucky sailor killed during World War II.
Gov. Matt Bevin made the order after the remains of the fallen soldier were only recently recovered and returned home. U.S. Navy Fireman 1st Class Samuel Crowder, of Louisville, was aboard the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At age 35, he was among 429 crewmen killed when that battleship was torpedoed and capsized. In 2015 the U.S. Department of Defense authorized unidentified remains to be exhumed and examined that had been kept at the National Memorial Cemetery in Honolulu.
Crowder was identified in August by matching DNA with relatives, dental comparisons and circumstantial evidence. His family was notified of his identification in late August 2017.
