Exclusive: Rancho Mirage family finds closure after Pearl Harbor sailor is finally identified

The family of Fireman First Class Everett Cecil Titterington will finally get long-awaited closure following years of uncertainty regarding their loved one's fate.

April McKinnon, a resident of Rancho Mirage, is F1c Titterington's great niece on her mother's side. She recalled the sense of joy and relief she and her family felt after the U.S. Navy identified the remains of Titterington, missing from World War II, on March 23, 2021.

F1c Titterington entered the U.S. Navy from Iowa and served on the USS Oklahoma. On December 7, 1941, the battleship USS Oklahoma was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when attacked by Japanese forces.

The Oklahoma suffered multiple torpedo hits, causing it to capsize. 429 sailors and Marines were lost, including F1c Titterington. In the days, months, and years following the attack, remains of men lost aboard the Oklahoma were recovered.

Those remains that could not be identified were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Honolulu, Hawaii (NMCP). In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) received authorization to exhume unknown remains associated with the Oklahoma and reexamine them using advances in forensic technology.

From June through November 2015, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) personnel, in cooperation with cemetery officials, exhumed all remaining caskets associated with the USS Oklahoma at the NMCP and transferred the remains to DPAA laboratories.

Laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established one set of these remains as those of F1c Titterington.

News Channel 3 is speaking with the family of the sailor as they prepare for his September 9 burial service in the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside.

Watch News Channel 3 at 6:00 p.m. tonight for the full story.