By BARBARA GREEN
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A funeral is often a sad and mournful occasion, and while Saturday’s service for James C. Solomon was tinged with grief, his homecoming to Forestburg after more than 76 years after his death at Pearl Harbor was respectful and joyful as American flags flew in the morning air and sailors in dress whites snapped to in their duties.
Navy Seaman 1st Class James Cleve Soloman was buried with full military honors, remembrances and hymns at Perryman Cemetery Saturday morning. He is the eighth seaman from the USS Oklahoma whose remains were identified through modern DNA testing conducted during the last three years.
Solomon had been in the U.S. Navy a little more than a year after joining on April 2, 1940, when the battleship USS Oklahoma was bombed while moored at Pearl Harbor. A total of 429 men died on the ship that day. Due to the ship capsizing and delays in getting to those deceased seaman there were problems with identification.
Despite multiple attempts to ID the men, many were buried as unknowns in two Hawaii cemeteries. However, about three years ago Solomon’s family was contacted about providing DNA material and last September Hardy Seay, nephew to Solomon, received a call that his “Uncle J” had been officially accounted for by the Navy.
A large crowd filled the small country cemetery located at the edge of Forestburg for the service. Members of the Patriot Guard escorted the casket from Bowie to the cemetery driving through a lane lined by the local Boy Scouts troop holding American flags.
Circling the gravesite were a Navy honor teams for a rifle volley,“Taps” and presentation of the American flag. They made an impressive site dressed in their white uniforms and their gold buttons shined in the sunlight.

RDML Carol Lynch, JAGC, USN, deputy judge advocate general (reserve affairs and operations, deputy commander, naval legal service command, led the honor team and rifle team, providing the military honors.
For Lynch this was her seventh seaman to lay to rest from the USS Oklahoma and it moves her as much today as the first one in December 2016. She explained the policy is if a sailor or marine is killed in action there will be a flag officer, an admiral at the funeral and at planeside when they come home.
“It is an honor every day,” said the Admiral. “The first one I did was shortly after being promoted to admiral. It was in Mississippi in December 2016 during the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was amazing. When I came home I thought I can retire now, it was a great memorable moment of my life to see the strong support and to honor someone who lost their life in service.”
Read the full story in the mid-week News and see many more photos from this event.

Also see the adjacent video on the flag folding ceremony.