JUDA — After 81 years, Seaman Second Class David Joseph Riley will make his final journey home. The Juda native and WWII sailor died during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. His unidentified body was laid at rest at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Honolulu, Hawaii. 

On Feb. 24, 2021, the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified his remains. After nearly two years, he is finally scheduled to return home, with final burial to take place in Juda on May 27, 2023, the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.

“This is awesome,” said Monroe Mayor Donna Douglas, who is also the president of the Zilmer-Riley American Legion Post #84 in Monroe. The post is named in part for Riley. “It will be a great homecoming. I’m sure we will have a special tribute.”

Riley was born Feb. 18, 1918, in Manitowoc and in 1927 became the foster son of Elmer and Della Asmus in Juda. He had previously lived in a children’s home based in Madison. He attended Juda schools and was later employed at Karlen’s Bakery and at the Moose Cafe in Monroe. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in May 1940 at age 22. 

On Dec. 7, 1941, Riley was killed in action during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that thrust the United States into World War II. He was the first person from Green County to die in World War II, though because there had been no declaration of war at the time of the attack, the death of Riley and the other 2,402 Americans are legally considered “non-combatant”.

Riley was aboard the USS Oklahoma, which was anchored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor on Oahu in Hawaii, in the morning hours of Dec. 7, 1941. When the Japanese attacked the staged Naval fleet, the Oklahoma suffered multiple torpedo hits, leading to the ship capsizing. In all, 429 sailors and Marines were on the ship, and 33 bodies of Riley’s shipmates still remain unidentified. In all, 2,008 sailors were killed, and 2,403 Americans died in the attack. Twenty-one American ships were damaged, with 18 sunk or run aground, including five battleships. All but three were repaired and returned to action: The Arizona, Oklahoma and Utah.

Initially, the U.S. Navy said Riley’s body was “buried at sea”, though the bodies of the dead sailors were recovered and interred between 1941 and 1944. In 1947, the bodies were transferred to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. Just 35 corpses were identified, and the remaining dead crew members were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Honolulu, Hawaii, also known as the Punchbowl. 

“After exhaustive search it has been found impossible to locate your friend David Joseph Riley, Seaman Second Class, United States Navy, and he has therefore been officially declared to have lost his life in the service of his country as of Dec. 7, 1941. The department expresses to you its sincerest sympathy,” wrote Rear Admiral Randall Jacobs, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation in a telegram sent Feb. 17, 1942 to Elmer and Della Asmus, Riley’s foster parents.

Since the project began in 2015, the DPAA identified the bodies of 396 crew members of the Oklahoma using DNA and anthropological analysis and dental records. To identify Riley’s remains, scientists used dental and anthropological analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

In Riley’s service member profile online, the DPAA wrote:

“In 2015, the DPAA received authorization to exhume unknown remains associated with the Oklahoma and reexamine them using advances in forensic technology. From June through November 2015, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) personnel, in cooperation with cemetery officials, exhumed all remaining caskets associated with the USS Oklahoma at the NMCP and transferred the remains to DPAA laboratories. Laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established one set of these remains as those of SEA2 Riley.”

On June 29, 2021, the DPAA announced the program would be coming to a close and the remaining unidentified bodies would be returned to the Honolulu cemetery. The Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl memorial includes Riley’s name. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Douglas felt relief that nearly 400 sailors have been identified, which affects hundreds of families and their communities — and likely thousands of people in all.

“It gives you a sense of closure, and I am sure that those of us in the community all will feel that way,” Douglas said. 

Aiding Riley’s return home was not an easy task for Deborah Krauss Smith, who on Nov. 10 was named Riley’s Person Authorized to Direct Disposition (PADD). Elmer Asmus is Krauss Smith’s maternal great-grand uncle, making Riley a foster cousin, twice removed to Krauss Smith.

“I have been working on trying to get David’s remains returned to Juda for well over a year,” she said. “Just last Thursday, Dec. 15, I met with representatives of the Navy to learn more about how he was identified and to get the ball rolling in terms of getting his remains back to Juda with his foster parents.”

Krauss Smith said she is not sure how the May 23 ceremony will play out, but that ultimately she will be the one responsible. She plans to meet with a group of individuals from Juda in January, then seek input from Zilmer-Riley Post #84, Green County Historical Society and Shriner-Hager-Gohlke Funeral Home in Monroe to better plan the event.

Riley’s remains are currently in Omaha, Neb. at the Air Force base, which is one of two places where forensic testing was done.

“The work being done by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is nothing short of amazing,” Krauss Smith said.

Riley was remembered locally and honored soon after his death. Zilmer-Riley Post #84, Monroe’s American Legion post, was renamed in 1947 by a unanimous vote in honor of Riley. The post had been named solely after Sgt. Glen R. Zilmer, a Monroe soldier killed during World War I. Zilmer’s body was returned to Wisconsin and buried at Greenwood Cemetery on Aug. 7, 1921, 3 years and 6 days after his death. Riley, age 23 at his death, was less than 6 months old when Zilmer was killed in action.

“Zilmer and Riley are in front of us constantly,” Douglas said of the local Legion post. “They are on all the checks we write, and at the building.”

One of the framed items of memorabilia in the post is a scarf Riley sent to a local woman before his death.

At Mount Vernon Cemetery north of Juda, there is a memorial for Riley.

For family and funeral information, contact the Navy Service Casualty office at (800) 443-9298.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving the country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil.