Gov. Evers orders flags to half-staff to honor Milwaukee man killed in Pearl Harbor attack

MADISON (CBS 58) -- Governor Tony Evers signed Executive Order #137 Thursday, Oct. 14, ordering the flags of the United States and the state of Wisconsin to be flown at half-staff on Friday., Oct. 15, , in honor of Navy Seaman 2nd Class Arthur R. Thinnes, who lost his life during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“Our state is proud of our servicemembers and their tremendous sacrifices, and we pay our deepest respects to the life and memory of Mr. Thinnes,” said Gov Evers. “I am glad to know that after nearly 80 years he is finally being laid to rest in the place he once called home.”

Navy Seaman Thinnes, assigned to the battleship USS Oklahoma, lost his life on Dec. 7, 1941, during the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Thinnes' ship, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, was attacked by Japanese aircraft and sustained multiple torpedo hits that capsized the boat, claiming the life of Navy Seaman Thinnes and 429 of his fellow crewmen.

Navy personnel recovered the remains of the deceased crew between 1941 and 1944 and interred unidentified remains, including those of Navy Seaman Thinnes, at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu shortly after World War II.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency later exhumed USS Oklahoma Unknowns in 2015 for scientific analysis and identified Navy Seaman Thinnes, who was accounted for on March 24, 2021.

Navy Seaman 2nd Class Arthur R. Thinnes will be laid to rest with full military honors at Wood National Cemetery in his hometown of Milwaukee on Friday, Oct. 15.

The executive order will be in effect from sunrise to sunset on Friday, Oct. 15.