U.S. aims to exhume and identify 88 USS Arizona crew members buried as unknowns after Pearl Harbor

The U.S. plans to exhume and identify 88 unknown USS Arizona crew members using advanced DNA technology for closure.

The U.S. military plans to exhume the remains of 88 sailors and Marines killed when the USS Arizona was bombed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and who were buried as unknowns in a Honolulu cemetery.

It's part of an effort to use advances in DNA technology to attach names to those the military was unable to identify after the aerial assault 85 years ago.

The disinterments from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific are due to begin in November or December, Kelly McKeague, the director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, said Thursday in a statement.

About eight sets of remains will be removed every two to three weeks, and the DNA will be compared with samples collected from family members of missing troops.

Dozens of ships sank, capsized or were damaged in the December 7, 1941, bombing of the Hawaii naval base, which catapulted the U.S. into World War II.

Oil still leaks from the USS Arizona, which lays submerged in the waters of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. File. | Photo Credit: AP