Two brothers killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor nearly 78 years ago were finally laid to rest this month in Port Orchard after being identified through a DNA sample from relatives.

Navy Seamen 2nd Class Calvin and Wilfred Palmer, originally from Minot, North Dakota, were the uncles of Helene Jensen, of Port Orchard.

They were laid to rest at Sunset Lane Memorial Park in Port Orchard on Aug. 9, where Jensen and her mother — the Palmer brothers' last surviving relatives — live.

“I didn’t know what to feel at first,” Jensen said about receiving the news that her uncles' remains had been identified and that the Navy wanted to return them.

“And then the more I thought about it, it became kind of exciting because it was a way I could have a little bit of my family,” she said.

The journey of the brothers' remains to Washington began with an email to Jensen from the Navy earlier this year. The email stated the Navy had identified the remains of Jensen's uncles.

Jensen was skeptical. The family had long given up on ever reclaiming the brothers' remains. But the email looked legitimate, so Jensen wrote back.

The brothers were originally buried in a communal grave in Hawaii with others who died during the attack on Dec. 7, 1941, in which Japanese torpedoes sunk the vessel, killing 429 aboard. The remains were buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

Then in 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) began exhuming remains. Relatives of the fallen sailors were contacted and asked to provide DNA samples to help identify the remains of those who had died.

Jensen’s aunt and the Palmer brothers’ sister, Joyce Willford, sent in DNA. But she died before her DNA was matched to her brothers'.

“We figured it was a done deal and we’d never hear anything else about it," Jensen said. "And then out of the blue, this happens.”

On March 25, DPAA announced that it had matched the remains of Calvin and Wilfred, who were 23 and 21, respectively, when they died.

Jensen said she and her mother, Doris Houk, met with several people from the Navy to fill out paperwork and make decisions about memorial services for Calvin and Wilfred. The Navy paid for the final honors.

Receiving her uncles' remains and holding their service was a “bookend” that gave the family closure, she said.

Jensen said that she was emotional from the moment the remains came off the plane — something she didn't expect, considering she didn't know her uncles.

"I figured I’d really have it together," she said, regarding her feelings. "I didn’t know these people."

During the service, she said she felt the brothers' presence. All of the chairs were full.

Naval Base Kitsap’s Funerals and Honors Division served as pallbearers, according to the Navy. The NBK Honor Guard performed a gun volley and Rear Adm. Eric Ruttenberg, chief engineer for Naval Information Warfare Systems Command, served as a guest speaker.

Jensen was handed an American flag, three bullet shells and a purple heart.

“You couldn’t help but just have goosebumps, your hair stand up on the ends," Jensen said. "It was one of the most beautiful, amazing ceremonies.”

Not far from Calvin and Wilfred's graves is that of their mother, Rosie Palmer. Helene’s father, Charles Burns, is also buried in Sunset Lane and was a close friend to the brothers in the service before becoming their brother-in-law.

Burns has his own remarkable story from the USS Oklahoma attack.

The Palmer brothers introduced Burns to Jensen’s mother, Doris Houck, by saying, “Here’s your husband.” Doris responded saying she wasn’t married, and Wilfred responded that she would be soon.

The Palmer brothers and Burns were friends until the end — when Burns tried to save Calvin and Wilfred on the day that Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Burns was running errands for the captain of the USS Oklahoma when the bombing began, Jensen said, but he knew the brothers were in the laundry room. Burns went to the laundry room, but the door was locked.

He found a key, then it slipped through his hands and out of reach. He couldn’t get the door open.

“After trying several attempts of doing whatever you might do in a desperate moment, he had to say goodbye to his friends and go up to the top of the ship, and the water was full of flames,” Jensen said.

“He found one opening that didn’t have flames, so he dove in there and was able to swim himself to shore but lost his two best friends.”

The Palmers’ names are recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are missing from World War II, according to the DPAA. A rosette will be placed next to their names to indicate they have been accounted for.

Unidentified military personnel who have died are identified through three types of DNA samples, or through other means like dental records or X-ray. For many years, DNA technology wasn't enough to identify a person and match them to a family member.

But with progress in science, Army Sgt. First Class Kirsten Duus, of DPAA, said it can match fallen soldiers to families better than it ever could have a decade ago.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency works year-round across the globe to identify missing servicemembers. Currently, there are 82,028 missing, with 72,674 from World War II.

Duus said the agency has been working to identify sailors who died on the USS Oklahoma for several years. In 2015, when the bodies were exhumed, 388 bodies were unidentified. It has since identified about 230 of those sailors, including the Palmer brothers.

"That was a particularly interesting case," Duus said. "They were the first set of brothers we made an ID on. It's one of the few cases we've identified simultaneously."