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Casualty Info
Home Town Coverport, KY
Casualty Date Dec 07, 1941
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Other Explosive Device
Location Hawaii
Conflict World War II
Wall/Plot Coordinates Lewisport Cemetery, Hancock County, KY
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Fireman/2c Martin Young was Killed in Action on December 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was stationed aboard the USS Oklahoma BB37.
Comments/Citation:
Fireman Second Class (F2c) Martin Daymond Young, United States Navy. Service Number: 2874306
Early Life
Martin Daymond Young was born on 11 May 1920 in Dukes, Hancock County, Kentucky. His father Eldred Harvey Young, born 20 March 1875 in Kentucky, died 31 December 1925 in Hancock County, Kentucky, was a Fisherman. His mother Millie Dean Gray was born on 3 April 1885 in Calloway County, Missouri and died on 23 May 1963 in Daviess County, Kentucky. Martin was the youngest of five children in the family; he had three older brothers and one older sisters. He attended Cloverport High School.
Military
Martin Daymond Young enlisted in the U.S. Navy on 14 August 1940 in Louisville, Kentucky. After boot camp and additional follow-on training, he was assigned to the Battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) which was stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii when the Japanese attack occurred. He reported aboard USS Oklahoma (BB-37) on 12 October 1940.
On the morning of 7 December 1941, a fleet of Japanese carriers launched an air strike against the U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor, on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The attack decimated the ships and personnel of the fleet and thrust the United States into World War II. At the onset of the 7 December 1941 attack, the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37), being moored at berth Fox 5 on “Battleship Row.” Just before 8 am, the Oklahoma was among the first of the ships struck in the attack. A torpedo struck on her port side and she capsized quickly. After the Arizona, she was the largest loss of life, at 429 sailors and marines. The Oklahoma was salvaged in 1942, but it was determined she could not be repaired. In May of 1947, she was sold for scrap and while under tow to California, she sank in a storm. Her exact location remains unknown to this day.
Death and Burial
Martin Daymond Young was Declared Dead while Missing in Action or Lost at Sea on 7 December 1941 aboard the USS Oklahoma during the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal. He was memorialized at the Honolulu Memorial, Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, located inside Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is also memorialized at the USS Oklahoma Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After his remains were identified, he was buried at the Lewisport Cemetery in Lewisport, Hancock County, Kentucky.
On August 19, 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Fireman Second Class Martin Daymond Young.
Fireman 2nd Class Young entered the U.S. Navy from Kentucky and served aboard the USS Oklahoma (BB-46). He was lost when the Oklahoma sank during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Young's remains were recovered from the ship following the battle, but they could not be individually identified and were eventually buried as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. In 2015, advances in forensic tools prompted unknown remains associated with the Oklahoma to be exhumed and brought to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Young was eventually identified from among these remains. Young is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Sources
This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen saved on Together We Served and 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's name and read his/her story.
