Gerald George Lehman was born in Antigo, Wis., the fourth child of Delia and Harry Lehman, on November 11, 1923, Armistice Day, the day which was to end all wars. The family relocated to the Copper Country and he graduated from Hancock High School with the Class of 1940, entering the Great Lakes Naval Academy. Aboard the USS Oklahoma in Hawaii, he was a Fireman Third Class (F3c). At 6:55 a.m. on December 7, 1941, the Japanese executed a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Because all the compartments on the ship were open in preparation for a Monday morning inspection, the ship capsized and sank with a loss of 429 lives. Gerald was killed less than a month after his 18th birthday. He had planned to take the train home during the Christmas holidays in 1941, if he could get leave. Little did he know that the DSS&A (Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic) would no longer be running when he returned home and that he would not be returning to Hancock for 69 years. While the family believed that Gerald was unknown and unrecoverable, remains associated with Lehman had been placed in a grave with those associated with four other sailors. In addition to Swanson, Thompson, Buxrucker, Wyman and Lehman, other remains were also found to be interred in the same grave. With advances in modern technology, four of the five were positively identified and returned to their families. Only Gerald could not be returned to his family, because he and another sailor had the same mitochondrial DNA. How the case was solved is what makes this case a landmark, precedent-setting case. Lehman was identified by his own nuclear DNA found on envelopes Gerald had sent home to his parents. Delia Lehman, Gerald's mother, could have opened the envelopes across the top flap, read the letters, and discarded the envelopes, or she could have opened them across the top flap, resulting in contamination. Instead, because she saved the envelopes and opened them down the side, there was no contamination on the undisturbed flap, and 70 years after Gerald had sealed the envelopes, this simple act resulted in his successful positive identification. F3c Lehman was initially buried in the Halawa Cemetery, moved to the Schofield Barracks Mausoleum, and later, moved to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, commonly known as the Punchbowl Cemetery. Burial with full military honors was on June 12, 2010, at the Forest Hill Cemetery on MacInnes Drive in Houghton where he was laid to rest next to his mother in the family plot. His parents, Delia and Harry Lehman; brother, Harry; and sisters, Margaret Herres and Florence Kitti Halley, all died holding fast to the dream that Gerald would ring the doorbell, having suffered amnesia in the attack. Gerald George Lehman earned the Purple Heart, WWII Victory Medal, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the Combat Action Ribbon. Gerald is survived by one nephew, John Herres; and four nieces, Mary (Herres) Hatcher, Barbara C. Herres, Roberta (Bobbi Kitti) Arvon, and Peggy (Kitti) Germain.
Gerald George Lehman was born in Antigo, Wis., the fourth child of Delia and Harry Lehman, on November 11, 1923, Armistice Day, the day which was to end all wars. The family relocated to the Copper Country and he graduated from Hancock High School with the Class of 1940, entering the Great Lakes Naval Academy. Aboard the USS Oklahoma in Hawaii, he was a Fireman Third Class (F3c). At 6:55 a.m. on December 7, 1941, the Japanese executed a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Because all the compartments on the ship were open in preparation for a Monday morning inspection, the ship capsized and sank with a loss of 429 lives. Gerald was killed less than a month after his 18th birthday. He had planned to take the train home during the Christmas holidays in 1941, if he could get leave. Little did he know that the DSS&A (Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic) would no longer be running when he returned home and that he would not be returning to Hancock for 69 years. While the family believed that Gerald was unknown and unrecoverable, remains associated with Lehman had been placed in a grave with those associated with four other sailors. In addition to Swanson, Thompson, Buxrucker, Wyman and Lehman, other remains were also found to be interred in the same grave. With advances in modern technology, four of the five were positively identified and returned to their families. Only Gerald could not be returned to his family, because he and another sailor had the same mitochondrial DNA. How the case was solved is what makes this case a landmark, precedent-setting case. Lehman was identified by his own nuclear DNA found on envelopes Gerald had sent home to his parents. Delia Lehman, Gerald's mother, could have opened the envelopes across the top flap, read the letters, and discarded the envelopes, or she could have opened them across the top flap, resulting in contamination. Instead, because she saved the envelopes and opened them down the side, there was no contamination on the undisturbed flap, and 70 years after Gerald had sealed the envelopes, this simple act resulted in his successful positive identification. F3c Lehman was initially buried in the Halawa Cemetery, moved to the Schofield Barracks Mausoleum, and later, moved to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, commonly known as the Punchbowl Cemetery. Burial with full military honors was on June 12, 2010, at the Forest Hill Cemetery on MacInnes Drive in Houghton where he was laid to rest next to his mother in the family plot. His parents, Delia and Harry Lehman; brother, Harry; and sisters, Margaret Herres and Florence Kitti Halley, all died holding fast to the dream that Gerald would ring the doorbell, having suffered amnesia in the attack. Gerald George Lehman earned the Purple Heart, WWII Victory Medal, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and the Combat Action Ribbon. Gerald is survived by one nephew, John Herres; and four nieces, Mary (Herres) Hatcher, Barbara C. Herres, Roberta (Bobbi Kitti) Arvon, and Peggy (Kitti) Germain.
