The publication is reproduced in full below:
IN RECOGNITION OF NEAL K. TODD
______
HON. DEAN PHILLIPS
of minnesota
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, November 3, 2021
Mr. PHILLIPS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize and honor Navy Fireman First Class Neal Kenneth Todd, who served aboard the USS Oklahoma, and we lost on December 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor.
A Minnesota native, born in the city of Akeley on November 5, 1919, Neal enlisted in the Navy just days before his 21st birthday in the fall of 1940, making him one of eight children of Irena Staffenhagen to serve in the armed forces. Each one of the children would return home safely, except for Neal, her fourth born.
Neal was assigned to the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu where he served alongside his brother, Fireman First Class, Wesley Roland Todd. America was not yet at war, but on December 7, 1941, Neal would be among the first Americans to make the ultimate sacrifice in the largest conflict humanity has ever known. His brother barely survived the attack.
What makes his sacrifice even more crucial to recognize today is the time and effort it took to get here. On the day of the attack at Pearl Harbor, Neal and other sailors like him were considered missing for decades and presumed to be casualties. Over 400 crewmembers died on the USS Oklahoma alone. At the time, the U.S. military lacked the technological capacity to identify these individuals and return them home.
Until March 1942, when months later, Neal's mother was formally notified that he was missing in action and had likely perished, but his family was not offered the closure of a proper burial. Families like Neal's have been left in the dark for years, knowing that surely their brothers and sons would not be able to share another smile or embrace with them, but still wishing they could give one last goodbye.
Thanks to recent efforts by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency started in 2015, along with the assistance of family members of the lost, DNA recognition and retrieval of remains from Pearl Harbor is finally possible. Neal Todd's identity was confirmed in February of this year, and this July, dozens of members of his family welcomed him home to Minnesota along with a traditional water salute on the airstrip of Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Neal Todd was finally returned to his hometown of Akeley, Minnesota, 80 years after his death for a funeral service before being buried in his final resting place next to his mother and father.
I hope my fellow Members of Congress can join me in honoring Navy Fireman First Class Neal K. Todd and commend the efforts by the DOD and families like Neal's in bringing our honorable lost back home to rest. I thank them.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 193
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