An Alabama veteran of World War II is coming home for burial this spring after his remains were identified 74 years after he died in action.
Navy Reserve Seaman 2nd Class Ira N. Slaton of Albertville died July 24, 1944 aboard the USS Colorado off the shore of the Northern Mariana Islands. He was 22.
The USS Colorado, along with other U.S. ships, had opened fire on the occupied island and took fire from a concealed Japanese shore battery. The first hit on the ship caused an explosion and heavy shrapnel. Four crewmen were declared missing in action and 39 were killed, including Slaton. The Colorado was a Battleship (BB-45) placed in service in 1923 that served throughout WWII and was decommissioned after the war ended.
Slayton was buried with the other 38 killed in a Marine cemetery on Saipan, but all were disinterred in 1948 to confirm the identifications. Four were reclassified unknown including Slaton, and they were buried again at the Manila American Memorial and Cemetery in the Philippines.
In October, 2017, personnel of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) exhumed “Unknown X-76” and sent the remains to a DPAA laboratory for analysis. Scientists used dental and anthropological evidence, along with other evidence, to make the identification on Sept. 24, 2018.
Slaton will be buried April 6 in Horton, Ala.
The DPAA says almost 72,742 American service members still unaccounted for from World War II. Approximately 26,000 are thought possibly recoverable. More than 400,000 Americans died in the war.
This list of those unaccounted for includes 1,113 servicemen who were never recovered from Alabama. You can find a complete list of those men, their service units, where they were serving when they went missing, at this link [click here]. The DPAA is still making an effort to locate and identify all missing service men. You can visit their website at this address [click here].
Slaton’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
After 74 years this sailor will soon be home from the hill.
