“Today is one that will stay with our family. My mom and grandparents would be pleased with this honor of James,” Richard Hanna, nephew of Ward, said in a statement. “We should all honor those who have served and are serving at home and abroad.”
Ward was assigned to USS (United States Ship) Oklahoma when it was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy noted. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for remaining onboard and guiding his shipmates to safety with a flashlight.
“I’m incredibly proud,” Hanna told this news outlet in a recent interview. “I’ve always been proud.”
Hanna is a Gainesville, Fla., resident. He was born in Springfield and lived there for two years before his family left Ohio.
In an interview, Hanna said Ward’s death was “pretty devastating” for his family. Hanna’s mother was Ward’s sister.
Ward was 20 when he died, one of 429 crew men who met similar fates aboard the Oklahoma.
“They spoke of him some, but not a great deal,” Hanna recalled. “My mom spoke about him some. But it was pretty traumatic and devastating for the family.”
According to the Navy, a total of 16 service members, ranging in rank from seaman to rear admiral, were awarded Medals of Honor related to events at Pearl Harbor, 11 of those posthumously.
Ward’s family was presented the Medal of Honor in March 1942, along with a letter from President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox. The Edsall-class destroyer escort ship USS. J. Richard Ward was named in his honor, commissioned July 5, 1943.
In 2003 the USS Oklahoma Project set out to identify the sailors’ remains that were lost with the Nevada-class battleship. Of the 394 service members originally deemed unaccounted-for, 361 sailors and Marines have since been individually identified, the military said.
Over 400,000 veterans are buried at Arlington, with over 8,000 being World War II veterans and over 400 being Medal of Honor recipients.
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