U.S. senators Chris Murphy and Senator Richard Blumenthal came to Guilford on May 8 to celebrate the Pentagon’s recent announcement that the remains of up to 388 sailors and Marines who lost their lives aboard the USS Oklahoma during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor will be exhumed and returned to their families. In 1943, when the Oklahoma was salvaged and raised, the remains of the sailors classified as “unknown” were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. For nearly 70 years, the family members of these men never knew the final resting place of their loved ones.

The legislators chose Guilford to make the announcement to note the leadership of Guilford’s Tom Gray in getting the measure passed. Gray’s 19-year-old cousin Edward Hopkins was killed aboard the Oklahoma. Here, Gray is joined at the podium by his wife, Diane, Murphy, Blumenthal, and First Selectman Joseph Mazza as he addresses the crowd and TV cameras assembled for the announcement.