Americans were told this date would live in infamy. And for decades it also lived in the memories of those who heard President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s words after an attack in Hawaii launched the United States into World War II. Today, those memories are disappearing. Today they live on in recordings and writings, perhaps in stories passed down to younger generations. But many of them are now lost.

Students understand the events of Dec. 7, 1941, because they read about it in textbooks, or watch the latest fictionalized movie version of the events. Even in the families of the 2,403 killed the generations don’t feel the sting of that day as their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncle did. But the work to bring closure to those families, 81 years after the attack, goes on.

Project Oklahoma is the military’s program to use DNA testing to identify remains that have for decades been buried in graves with hundreds of others. With the help of family members willing to provide a reference sample, labs across the country were able to work together to identify more than 90% of the 394 unaccounted for service members on which they were working.

“The most rewarding part of what we do is being able to talk to families or go to a burial, and see that all the way to the end,” Carrie Legarde, a project lead for Project Oklahoma, told KHON in Hawaii. “And I think it helps kind of give you a boost in what we do, and a good reminder of how important this is and how, how meaningful it is to the families.”

We owe it to those families and the loved ones lost not to let the memory of their sacrifice fade as the years march along. And we owe it to them to continue work such as that done by Project Oklahoma, so that ALL of them receive the respect and honor they deserve.