Scientists confirmed on June 11, 2025, that one of 12 sets of remains buried as unknowns in Honolulu belonged to Cpl. Lester H. Libolt, a 21-year-old Army airman killed at Hickam Field on Dec. 7, 1941, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
He is now coming home to Nebraska. WOWT reported that Libolt will be buried with full military honors at 1 p.m. on Nov. 13 at Fort McPherson National Cemetery near Maxwell, beside his younger brother, Clarence, who also died during World War II. The answer reached the family 85 years after the attack, and it came through the family of his twin sister.
A Farm Boy From South Dakota Who Enlisted at 19
Libolt was born March 11, 1920, in Gregory, South Dakota, and spent his early years on the family farm near Carlock in Gregory County. His mother died when he was 12, and the family moved to Nebraska, settling near Burton and Newport.
He enlisted in the U.S. Army in September 1939 and was assigned to the 11th Bombardment Group at Hickam Field on Oahu. His siblings were Leona, his twin, along with Clarence and Jean. Farm households of that era ran on routines that have mostly vanished, a world pictured in this collection of forgotten household items from the past, and the week of his burial also includes Veterans Day, when offers beyond restaurants put the spotlight on people who served.
His father, Lloyd, joined the Navy and became a Seabee. Lloyd spent his free time trying to learn what had happened to his son, and he died in 1968 without an answer. Another military family story from this month, about Colorado opening its state parks to military families, shows how communities keep finding ways to honor service households.
What Was Seen at Hickam on the Morning of the Attack
Fellow soldier Muriel Anderson of Omaha was with Libolt that morning. In a letter to the family, reported in an Aug. 10, 1942, article in the Capital Journal of Salem, Oregon, Anderson said he last saw Libolt running toward part of the barracks during the second attack. That section was soon destroyed.
The Army initially listed Libolt as missing in action. He was among 182 Army airmen killed at Hickam Field, part of a toll that topped 2,000 Americans across the attack on Pearl Harbor. For a lighter look back at customs of later decades, there is a gallery of little rituals from the ’80s and ’90s that disappeared without much notice.
Families planning their own tributes this week may also want to know that national parks waive entrance fees on Veterans Day, and that California and Oregon DMV offices close on Nov. 11.
Twelve Graves Marked Unknown in Honolulu
After the attack, Navy personnel recovered the remains of Army personnel killed at Hickam and buried them at Schofield Barracks Cemetery on Oahu. In August 1947, the American Graves Registration Service moved the remains to a laboratory at Schofield Barracks, hoping to put names to them.
Twelve men could not be identified with the technology of the time. They were buried as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, and Libolt’s name was carved into its Courts of the Missing. For decades his headstone read only “Unknown.” Older generations kept many customs that younger ones find puzzling, as 14 boomer habits making a comeback and 20 odd American traditions show.
DNA From a Twin Sister’s Family Supplies the Match
In June 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency began exhuming the 12 graves. One set of remains went to the agency’s laboratory, and on June 11, 2025, scientists confirmed they were Libolt’s.
The identification relied in part on DNA from Loretta Augustus, the daughter of Libolt’s twin sister, Leona. That family link connected a Nebraska household to a grave in Hawaii.
The agency’s own release described itself as an initial announcement and said the complete accounting would be published after the family receives its full briefing. It lists Libolt as a corporal in the U.S. Army Air Forces, 21 years old, and notes that the Japanese assault on Hickam Field followed the attack on Pearl Harbor and lasted about four hours.
Burial Beside Clarence at Fort McPherson
Libolt’s casket arrived at Denver International Airport from Hawaii, where an honor guard was present. Augustus chose Fort McPherson so that he could be buried in Nebraska, the state where the family settled after his mother’s death. The airman who once appeared only on a wall of the missing and in a wartime newspaper letter now appears among those the agency has accounted for.
The service is set for 1 p.m. on Nov. 13, 2026, with full military honors. Libolt will rest next to Clarence, the younger brother who died in the same war. For a father who searched until 1968, the ending he never saw now has a date, a place and a headstone that carries a name.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.