75 Years After Pearl Harbor, a Young Arlington Sailor's Remains Are Finally Coming Home

Navy Seaman 1st Class George Anderson Coke Jr., killed in action during the attack on Pearl Harbor over 75 years ago, will at long last be returned to Arlington on Friday.The process of bringing his remains home has been long and arduous.The 18-year-old sailor was among 429 killed when Japanese torpedoes sank the USS Oklahoma on Dec. 7, 1941. His body was buried with other unknowns in Hawaii and twice was disinterred for identification.A 1947 effort identified 35 of his shipmates, but Coke was among those left unidentified and was reburied in Hawaii. In 1949, he was classified as "non-recoverable." Military investigators, however, remained diligent.About eight years ago, a genealogical search led the military to Gay Nell La Fave of Comanche, about 100 miles southwest of Fort Worth. La Fave is a direct female descendent of Coke's great-grandmother, Florence Tomlin, and she proved to be the key to unlocking the 75-year-old mystery.On June 15, 2015, Coke was disinterred again, this time for DNA analysis. A match to La Fave's DNA was made in December."He's coming home," she said in a telephone interview.La Fave expects about 40 members of the Coke and Tomlin families to be present when Coke's remains arrive Friday morning at DFW International Airport. A memorial service and burial are planned Saturday.'All-American boy'News of Coke's homecoming was a bigger shock than word of his death 75 years ago, said Doland Maner, a 1940 Arlington High School graduate and classmate."He was a great kid and everybody liked him," said Maner, who finished school a year ahead of Coke. "George was just the all-American boy. He was really a great kid."H. Milton Coke Jr. of Atlanta is Coke's nephew who was born after his uncle died."It says on his tombstone ... 'Loved by all,'" he said. "Everybody who has told me about George confirmed that he was a well-liked, jovial sort of a guy."Maner recalled the moment that Sunday in 1941 when he learned the U.S. Pacific fleet had been attacked. He and some friends were walking down South Street when a man pulled up in a truck and asked what they thought about it.Arlington at the time was a town of about 4,000 people, with two elementary schools and Arlington High School."You knew most of the kids," Maner said. "You knew everybody in town in those days."Weeks after the attack, news came that another Arlington native, 22-year-old Marine Pfc. Francis Colston Heath, had died aboard the USS Nevada at Pearl Harbor."We lost two boys that morning," said Maner, who served in the Navy and went on to become an Arlington City Council member. "We lost a lot more Arlington boys during the war than those two, but those two stand out because of Pearl Harbor."Forty-eight Arlington residents died in World War II.With America thrust into World War II, young men immediately began enlisting."The town was stripped of young men for a while," Maner said.Coke was born in Arlington on Aug. 6, 1923. His father, George Anderson "Dutch" Coke, was a career Tarrant County peace officer, with 18 years of service as a sheriff's deputy and stints as chief of Arlington's fire and police departments. He died at age 42 of a kidney ailment in 1937.Deep impact on familyThe elder Coke's death brought his son Hugh Milton Coke home from the Navy. Hugh Coke, seven years older than George Jr., served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga."When George was old enough, you could say he took his place," Milton Coke Jr. said.George Coke Jr. had five uncles and two aunts."We know of at least 15 people from our immediate family that joined the military saying that they were going to take George's place," Milton Coke Jr. said.The same was true for the Tomlin branch of the Coke family tree."We were raised to be very patriotic, No. 1 because of him," La Fave said. "It really affected our family for him to be killed."On his mother's side, the Tomlins were early settlers of Arlington, where they became land owners and racehorse breeders.Coke was a Boy Scout. He enlisted in the Navy during his senior year at Arlington High School, taking his military physical on Jan. 21, 1941. He graduated "in absentia" from high school on May 22, 1941. He earned a letter jacket playing football for the Colts in 1940 but left for the Navy before it arrived. His mother kept the jacket.Coke also was a Golden Gloves champion in high school, and he kept boxing in the Navy, his nephew said."George weighed 156 pounds," Milton Coke Jr. said. "Our family story is he won the Pacific championship in boxing, in his weight class. ... He was a short guy but a real scrapper."  Continue reading...