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Casualty Info
Home Town Virginia, MN
Last Address Virginia, MN
Casualty Date Dec 07, 1941
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Hawaii
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Calvary Cemetery - Virginia, Minnesota
Military Service Number 3 287 319
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
On Dec. 7, 1941, RM3 Tini was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Tini.
UPDATE: In April 2015, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a policy memorandum directing the disinterment of unknowns associated with the USS Oklahoma. On June 15, 2015, DPAA personnel began exhuming the remains from the Punchbowl for analysis.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, killed during World War II have been identified as those of Navy Radioman 3rd Class Dante S. Tini. Tini,19, born in Virginia, Minnesota, was accounted for on August 13, 2018.
Comments/Citation:
Dante Sylvester Tini was born July 25, 1922 in Virginia, St. Louis County, Minnesota. His parents were Italian immigrants Daniel and Rachel Georgi Tini. They arrived in the USA in 1919. His father worked as a maintenance worker for a local park. They owned their home in Virginia and had five children; Inez, Vincent, Alda and Dante and Annette.
He enlisted in the United States Navy and served during World War II. Tini had the rank of Petty Officer Third Class. Service number assignment was 3287319. He was attached to the USS Oklahoma as a Radioman.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Tini was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize, trapping the sailors inside the hull. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Tini.
Navy Petty Officer 3c Tini, 19, of Virginia, Minnesota, was accounted for in 2018. DNA analysis and circumstantial evidence were used in the identification of his remains.
Dante Sylvester Tini is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Honolulu Memorial, Honolulu, Hawaii. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location. His remains were returned home and buried at Calvary Cemetery, Virginia, St. Louis County, Minnesota on 24 May 2019.
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This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Together We Served and on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smartphone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen person’s name and read his/her story.
marykake47286 - Contributing Author, Stories Behind the Stars
If you have any details, photos, or corrections for this story, please click here to email TWS directly.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, killed during World War II have been identified as those of Navy Radioman 3rd Class Dante S. Tini. Tini,19, born in Virginia, Minnesota, was accounted for on August 13.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Tini was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, when the ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft. The USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack on the ship resulted in the deaths of 429 crewmen, including Tini.
From December 1941 to June 1944, Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew, which were subsequently interred in the Halawa and Nu'uanu Cemeteries.
In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks. The laboratory staff was only able to confirm the identifications of 35 men from the USS Oklahoma at that time. The AGRS subsequently buried the unidentified remains in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP), known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Tini.
In April 2015, the Deputy Secretary of Defense issued a policy memorandum directing the disinterment of unknowns associated with the USS Oklahoma. On June 15, 2015, DPAA personnel began exhuming the remains from the Punchbowl for analysis.
To identify Tini's remains, scientists from DPAA and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial (mtDNA) DNA analysis, dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence.
DPAA is grateful to the Department of Veterans Affairs for their partnership in this mission.
Of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died during the war. Currently there are 72,866 (approximately 26,000 are assessed as possibly-recoverable) still unaccounted for from World War II. Tini's name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
For additional information on the Defense Department's mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website at www.dpaa.mil, find us on social media at www.facebook.com/dodpaa or call (703) 699-1420/1169.
Tini's personnel profile can be viewed at https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaProfile?id=a0Jt0000000XgBlEAK
