Royle Bradford Luker was 17 years old and wanted to come home for Christmas. The Navy sailor from Arkansas had written to his parents asking for money for the trip, according to his niece, Becky Leinsing. His family could not afford to send it. “I’ve always wondered and wished I had asked if that trip home would have had him out of harm’s way,” Lensing told Military.com. Days later, Japanese aircraft attacked Pearl Harbor, and Luker was killed aboard the USS West Virginia. More than 84 years later, he is coming home.
Royle Bradford Luker, a 17-year-old Navy fireman 3rd class from Arkansas, was killed aboard the USS West Virginia during the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. His remains were identified more than 82 years later.
(Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
Luker, a Navy firefighter 3rd class, was officially accounted for May 29, 2024, more than 82 years after he was killed, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. His burial is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at New Bethel Cemetery in Plainview, Ark., where he will be laid to rest beside his parents. For his family, the return marks the end of a wait that spanned generations. “I could not believe it when I got the call that he had been identified,” Lensing said. “From what I had read about the USS West Virginia, I thought there was no hope of ID’ing him.” The Navy notified Lensing on Feb. 3, 2025, she said, after officials had spent months trying to locate Luker’s oldest living relatives. She gave them her cousin John Luker's phone number, and since then the two have been communicating with Navy representatives.
