Authorities identify remains of Kentucky sailor killed in WWII

Officials with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) on Wednesday announced that they have discovered the remains of a sailor from Kentucky who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II.

In a press release, authorities said that Navy Seaman 2nd Class Floyd D. Helton of Somerset was 18 at the time of his death. They were able to identify him using DNA in addition to dental and anthropological analysis.

Helton was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma in December of 1941. The ship was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor and Helton was on board when a Japanese aircraft attacked with multiple torpedo hits, according to the release.

The attack resulted in the ship capsizing, leading to 429 deaths.

From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy officials were tasked with uncovering the remains of the crew of the USS Oklahoma. Laboratory staff were able to identify 35 men at the time and members of the American Graves Registration Service buried the remaining unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, according to DPAA.

Authorities began to exhume the remains for identification in 2015.

Helton is set to buried next month in Burnside, Ky.