Special to the Chronicle Progress: Sharon Steele Senecal
USS Oklahoma radioman killed in attack on Pearl Harbor to return home for burial
Miracles do happen!
Theodore Que Jensen, who was killed on Dec. 7, 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbor, will be returned to rest in the Delta Cemetery next to the American Legion Post named in his honor.
In a surprising telephone call last month, family members were notified of a monumental discovery. The Navy and the Department of Defense changed their records from “killed in action and no recoverable remains” to “due to very recent advances in forensic techniques we are able to provide the Charles Matthew Jensen family with the remains of Radioman Third Class Theodore Q. Jensen who served in the U.S. Navy.”
Due to recent funding and advanced technology and forensic science and research, the Defense POW/MIA Ac-counting Agency Laboratory was able to use family DNA samples and identify this beloved patriot.
Theodore (Theo) Jensen grew up in Sutherland and graduated from Delta High School. He enlisted in the Navy on Aug. 6, 1940 and was assigned to the USS Oklahoma based in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Theo with sister, Bonnie, at the Delta train station as he returned to military duty before Pearl Harbor.
From the letters he sent home, Theo went on several missions patrolling the Pacific. He aspired to make the Navy his career and had expressed an interest in attending the Naval Academy.
“It was a wonderful surprise!” said his niece, Sharon (Steele) Senecal, when she received the news from the Navy Department.
She shared the news quickly with the remaining 16 Jensen family nieces and nephews.
“We were all amazed and ecstatic to learn of the recent developments.”
While always staying positive, never did they think they would have the opportunity to see their uncle buried in Delta.
For 80 years, the family thought Theo was entombed in the USS Oklahoma or that some of his remains were placed in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (the Punchbowl) in Honolulu.
Many family members traveled to Hawaii to honor his memory and pay their respects.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, several telegrams, letters, and notices were sent to family members extending sympathy but offering no hope for finding Theo’s remains.
The tight-knit family never gave up and continued to look for additional information that might lead to more insight into how he died. Friends who were on the USS Oklahoma with Theo told the family that on that Sunday morning, Dec. 7, he was given a pass to leave the ship and went below deck to retrieve his camera.
The family didn’t know if he drowned as the ship capsized, if he was thrown off the ship and drowned, or if he had made it off the ship and was killed during the air raid.
His nephew John B. Jensen wrote on Facebook when he learned of the miracle, “Never give up hope!”
Charles M. Jensen with son, Theo, at the Delta train station prior to his return to the USS Oklahoma.
When asking how this discovery came about, family members were told the following information:
New forensic technology developed over the last few years enabled the Navy to identify the remains—in fact, the remains of hundreds of sailors killed aboard the Oklahoma have now been positively identified. A navy spokesperson explained that Theo was assigned to the battleship and during the attack on Pearl Harbor this ship suffered multiple torpedo hits causing it to capsize.
Four hundred and twenty-nine sailors and Marines were lost. In the days, months, and years following the attack, remains of men lost aboard the Oklahoma were slowly recovered.
Ultimately, 35 were identified; the rest of the unidentified remains were buried at the Punchbowl in Hawaii as “Unknowns.”
Permission to exhume the graves of the USS Oklahoma “Unknowns” was given on April 14, 2015 because of advances in forensic techniques. From June through November 2015, all exhumed caskets associated with the USS Oklahoma were transferred to two locations—Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii and Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.
DNA testing was performed using samples from a maternal relative. In Theo’s case it was Kevin N. Heyborne. Testing of the remaining skeletal bones gave conclusive evidence that the remains belonged to Theo.
On April 1, a few of Theo’s nieces and nephews will hold a conference call with a Navy officer who is coordinating the return of his remains.
More information will be shared at that time. What is known is that the Navy will bring Theo’s remains to Delta and conduct a proper military burial.
It is the family’s hope to include Theo’s American Legion Post’s members and the community at large, along with Theo’s family for the burial ceremony.
