NOCVA Membership Chairperson, Roland S. Combado (RC), San Bernardino/Riverside County Chapter, is coordinating this event and provides the following information:

 

Parents are Ana Cabrera Francisco and Antonio San Nicolas Garcia, formerly of Barrigada; Jesus is one of 10 siblings.

 

There will be 10 Garcia family members from Texas attending the service to include San Bernardino/Riverside County NOCVA members.

 

Rosary will be recited on Wednesday, 6 Oct 2021, at 9:30 am, and followed by Christian Burial Mass at 10:00 am at Santa Sophia Catholic Church, 9800 San Juan Street, Spring Valley, CA 91977.

 

Burial will be at 1:30 pm, Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, 1800 Cabrillo Memorial Drive, San Diego, CA 92106.

 

After burial, Mr. Combado will lead a NOCVA Chelu Tribute in honor of Jesus Francisco Garcia, at 3:00 pm at the Sons & Daughters of Guam Club Pavilion, 334 Willie James Jones Avenue, San Diego, CA 92102, followed by food and refreshments. To donate food, dessert, or beverages, please contact Brienda Diaz, (805) 312-1728.

 

The families and NOCVA cordially invite you to attend and look forward to meeting the Chamorro Community in San Diego. Below website link provides additional information regarding Navy Steward’s Mate 2nd Class Jesus Francisco Garcia.

 

 

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced Saturday, Guam time, that Navy Steward’s Mate 2nd Class Jesus F. Garcia, 21, of Hagåtña, killed during World War II, was accounted for on 25 Sep 2018.

 

His family only recently received the full briefing on his accounting, according to a news release.

 

On Dec. 7, 1941, Garcia was assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. The ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft and the USS Oklahoma sustained multiple torpedo hits, which caused it to quickly capsize. The attack killed 429 crewmen, including Garcia.

 

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, the release stated.

 

In September 1947, tasked with recovering and identifying fallen U.S. personnel in the Pacific Theater, members of the American Graves Registration Service disinterred the remains of U.S. casualties from the two cemeteries and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks, the release stated. 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, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu. In October 1949, a military board classified those who could not be identified as non-recoverable, including Garcia, the release stated.

 

Between June and November 2015, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency personnel exhumed the USS Oklahoma Unknowns for analysis.

 

Anthropological analysis, as well as material and circumstantial evidence, was used to identify Garcia.

 

Garcia’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for, the release stated. Garcia will be buried Oct. 6, 2021, in San Diego.