Why 88 USS Arizona Sailors Are Being Dug Up After 85 Years

In December 2026, 85 years after Pearl Harbor, the U.S. military is set to begin exhuming and identifying 88 USS Arizona crew members who were buried as "Unknown" in Honolulu's Punchbowl Cemetery. For decades, many families believed their loved ones were entombed inside the battleship. Some of them were actually ten miles away, under headstones with no names. In this documentary we follow the full story: what happened to the USS Arizona on December 7, 1941, why so many of her crew were never identified, the 2021 proposal to place the unknowns inside the wreck forever, and how one Virginia family member, Kevin Kline, and his volunteer group Operation 85 tracked down hundreds of families to make DNA identification possible. We also look at why the Arizona can never be raised, the oil that still leaks from her hull every day, and what this historic identification project could mean for up to 140 American families. If you enjoy naval history, forgotten warships and the stories behind the world's most famous wrecks, subscribe to Drowned Iron and turn on notifications. Tell us in the comments: should these sailors be identified and sent home, or should they have stayed with their ship? Sources include the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Stars and Stripes, Military Times, the National WWII Museum and the National Park Service. #USSArizona #PearlHarbor #NavalHistory #WW2History #Shipwreck #Battleship #DrownedIron