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This December will mark 80 years since the attacks on Pearl Harbor killed more than 2,000 Americans in Hawaii. One of those lives lost finally got the hero’s sendoff he deserves.The Exira Lutheran Church was filled with the community paying their respects to a sailor who finally made it home.”It’s been 80 years, Dec. 7, it will be exactly 80 years,” said John Henry Tibben, a relative of Eli Olsen.Nearly eight decades after those attacks on Pearl Harbor, Olsen’s remains were identified using his sibling’s DNA. Tibben’s mother was the last remaining sibling. “My mother was still alive, she gave DNA to identify him, didn’t you give him DNA too, and my dad too, so those were the three family members that gave,” said Tibben, and Tabitha Olsen — Eli’s great-niece.”I was a little baby when Eli was in the Navy and he used to come up and visit mother and he’d bounce me on his knee,” Tibben said.Although Olsen never had a chance to meet her great uncle, her family made sure to keep his memory alive.”I never knew him, but I heard stories from my grandfather, it’s a pleasure to have him home,” Tabitha Olsen said.And in a quiet cemetery in Exira, Iowa, United States Navy Storekeeper 3rd Class Eli Olsen got a hero’s sendoff.”He chose, along with his siblings, to know that he served our country and he died for our country,” Tabitha Olsen said.
This December will mark 80 years since the attacks on Pearl Harbor killed more than 2,000 Americans in Hawaii. One of those lives lost finally got the hero’s sendoff he deserves.
The Exira Lutheran Church was filled with the community paying their respects to a sailor who finally made it home.
“It’s been 80 years, Dec. 7, it will be exactly 80 years,” said John Henry Tibben, a relative of Eli Olsen.
Nearly eight decades after those attacks on Pearl Harbor, Olsen’s remains were identified using his sibling’s DNA. Tibben’s mother was the last remaining sibling.
“My mother was still alive, she gave DNA to identify him, didn’t you give him DNA too, and my dad too, so those were the three family members that gave,” said Tibben, and Tabitha Olsen — Eli’s great-niece.
“I was a little baby when Eli was in the Navy and he used to come up and visit mother and he’d bounce me on his knee,” Tibben said.
Although Olsen never had a chance to meet her great uncle, her family made sure to keep his memory alive.
“I never knew him, but I heard stories from my grandfather, it’s a pleasure to have him home,” Tabitha Olsen said.
And in a quiet cemetery in Exira, Iowa, United States Navy Storekeeper 3rd Class Eli Olsen got a hero’s sendoff.
“He chose, along with his siblings, to know that he served our country and he died for our country,” Tabitha Olsen said.