Clendenning, Lee I.
Army Private 1st class

Lee I. Clendenning, age 23, from Taylor County Rib Lake, Wisconsin .

Parents: Archie Clendenning

Service era: World War II

Date of death: Sunday, December 7, 1941
Death details: On March 11, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) identified the remains of Pfc. Lee I. Clendenning, missing from World War II. Clendenning entered the U.S. Army Air Forces from Wisconsin and was a member of the 23rd Bombardment Squadron, 5th Bombardment Group on Hickam Field on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese military forces conducted a surprise attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as well as surrounding U.S. military installations. Located next to Pearl Harbor, Hickam Field was in the direct path of Japanese planes, who targeted U.S. aircrafts and ships, barracks, supply buildings, and the base chapel over the course of four hours. Clendenning was reportedly killed during this time. In the days following the attack, Navy personnel recovered the remains of U.S. Army and U.S. Army Air Forces casualties, which were subsequently interred in the Schofield Barracks Cemetery. Although some remains were interred as named burials, in the chaos of the attack many casualties were recovered without initial identification. After the war, the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) exhumed the remains from Schofield Barracks Cemetery and transferred them to the Central Identification Laboratory at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, for processing. The remains that could not be identified at the time were buried as Unknowns in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (NMCP). In 2020 DPAA personnel, in cooperation with cemetery officials, exhumed the caskets containing Unknowns reported to be associated with Hickam Field losses at the NMCP and transferred the remains to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis. The laboratory analysis and the totality of the circumstantial evidence available established an association between one set of these unknown remains and Clendenning.
Cemetery: Rib Lake (2025)

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Marshfield News Herald (1943)