Navy seaman killed in Pearl Harbor buried more than 80 years later in hometown of Independence

INDEPENDENCE — More than 80 years after seaman David F. Tidball died aboard the USS Oklahoma when it sank during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, he was buried Saturday in a military service in his hometown of Independence.

Not many of the deceased from the USS Oklahoma were able to be identified after the war, but in 2015 the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency disinterred the unidentified bodies and began the process of identification through anthropological analysis, mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA.

Tidball’s body was identified in 2021.

He graduated from Independence High School in 1938 and received a diploma from Independence Community College in spring 1940. That summer, he enlisted in the Navy.

Tidball, who died when he was 20, has been in the Navy about a year before Japanese torpedoes struck the ship. He was one of 429 USS Oklahoma crewman who died in the attack.

Tidball’s remains arrived Saturday at the Mount Hope Cemetery behind a procession of 58 motorcyclists from veteran and motorcycle groups in Northeast Iowa.

Flags lined the road into the cemetery and community members surrounded the site where Tidball would be buried. Family members — mostly nieces and nephews — sat in a few chairs by the casket during the graveside service.

A eulogy was delivered by Naval Capt. Mark Dieter, who came from Wisconsin for the funeral but is originally from Vinton. Seaman Tidball was honored by a 21-gun salute, performed by naval cadets from the Naval Station Great Lakes.

“This is not just a day about a family. It’s also a day about our nation. It’s about our nation’s history,” Dieter said during his remarks. “The greatest error we can make as a nation is to not be grateful.”

Tidball’s family was presented with the flag that had adorned his casket by Naval Commanding Officer Shahama Brown. Brown said before the service that it’s a sacred honor to be in attendance at veteran funerals. This is the second time she’s been present at a service for a USS Oklahoma seaman.

“You don’t know them, but they’re still your brother or sister, because you wear that uniform, too,” Brown said.

Harry E. Nichols, a Navy storekeeper from Sioux City, was also identified as part of the accounting agency project, and was buried Friday in Sioux City.

Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered flags across the state to fly at half-mast Friday and Saturday to honor Nichols and Tidball.

Before his body was identified, Tidball had been honored in Independence as the first local serviceman to lose his life in World War II. The American Legion Sheehan-Tidball Post 30 was named for Tidball, and for Captain E.M. Sheehan, the first serviceman to lose his life in World War I.

Members of the American Legion and other veterans’ organizations stood at attention throughout the service Saturday.

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