BRAVE MAG

The remains of another sailor aboard the doomed USS California have been identified more than eight decades after the battleship was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. officials confirmed on Friday.

U.S. Navy Seaman 1st Class Clyde C. McMeans, 26, was officially accounted for on Nov. 25, 2025, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said in anews release.

On Dec. 7, 1941, McMeans was assigned to the USS California, which was moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor. Japanese warplanes attacked, torpedoed and bombed the ship, which caught fire before flooding and slowly sinking. McMeans, 26, was one of 103 crewmen who died.

According toPacific Historic Parks, McMeans was in a motorboat helping other sailors get to shore when that boat was struck by a bomb. He was reported missing and later declared dead.

Navy personnel worked until April 1942 to recover remains of the crew, which were interred in the Halawa and Nu'uanu Cemeteries in Hawaii. In addition to the 42 casualties from the USS California initially identified after the attack, dozens of other crewmen from the ship have since been identified using forensic testing.

Efforts to identify the remaining crew of the USS California have been ongoing.

The DPAA did not provide McMeans' hometown but hisfamily told KRIS-TVin Corpus Christi that he grew up in South Texas and had a brother, Edward McMeans, a medic who survived World War II. On Tuesday, the Navy told Clyde McMeans' family that his remains were identified through DNA and forensic analysis, the station reported.

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"We've loved him forever, without ever knowing him," Kathy Herrmann, McMeans' niece, told the station.

Family members say McMeans'funeral servicewill be held on May 1 and he will be buried at Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery in Corpus Christi with military honors.

In October, U.S. military officials announced another crew member on the USS California,  U.S. Navy Fireman 1st ClassEdward D. Bowden, had also been accounted for.

Earlier this month, the DPAA said itplans to exhumethe remains of 88 unidentified sailors and Marines who were killed when theUSS Arizonawas attacked at Pearl Harbor.The Arizona sankjust nine minutes after being bombed, and its 1,177 dead account for nearly half the servicemen killed in the attack.

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A slew of documents related to President Donald Trump's efforts toclose and extensivelyrenovate the Kennedy Center must be turned over to a Democratic congresswoman who sits on the center's board ahead of a Monday vote on the president's plan, a federal judge has ruled.

US District Judge Christopher Cooper said in a lengthy decision Saturday that Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty has a right to the information so she can meaningfully participate in the upcoming White House meeting, during which the storied performing arts center is poised to approve the plan by Trump, who last year installed himself as its chair.

"A project of this salience and magnitude — which threatens to involve at least some demolition and reconstruction of a major national memorial and active performing arts theater — does not happen overnight," Cooper wrote. "If it is the case that many external advisors and Board members have been consulted, the financing is set, and already-made decisions are currently being implemented on-site, there must be some concrete information to share with the full Board, including Beatty."

Trump administration lawyers had argued that the renovation plans were "preliminary" and not "finalized," suggesting that the president would be involved in fine-tuning details for the closure until the last minute.

Cooper said that argument "borders on preposterous."

Beatty, an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center's board, is challenging the legality of Trump's plan to temporarily close the building. She had also asked Cooper to intervene to ensure she had a right to vote during Monday's meeting, contending that the board's decision to change its rules last year to prohibit ex-officio members from casting a vote was unlawful and therefore must be blocked.

Though Cooper agreed that the rule change "is likely void," he stopped short of also ordering officials to permit Beatty to cast a vote next week, saying she had not shown how her challenge to that change months after it occurred warranted his intervention now.

"The marginal harm to her from not voting is much less, as she will be able to lodge her objections on the record and have the opportunity to persuade her colleagues of her position," he wrote.

Beatty had filed a two-pronged lawsuit against Trump and other appointed members of the board, and Saturday's ruling addresses the immediate concern of the upcoming board meeting.

"No president has the authority to shut Congress out of the governance of the Kennedy Center, much less unilaterally rename or demolish it. We will not stand by while an important part of our national heritage is jeopardized, and I intend to make that clear at next week's board meeting," she said in a statement moments after the judge's ruling.

The congresswoman has also asked the judge to halt the center's planned closure until it receives congressional approval.

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The renovations announced by Trump last month mark his latest effort to overhaul the center and place his mark on culture in the nation's capital. He gutted the board and installed loyalists who elected him chair and voted in December to rename the venue the "Trump Kennedy Center" — a move Beatty is challenging in court.

But the changes have also led to slumping ticket sales and a dwindling number of performances as prominent artists havecanceled their appearances— which some saw as driving the desire to temporarily close.

Ahead of the Monday White House meeting, Trumpannouncedthat Richard Grenell, a longtime ally who has been serving as the center's president, would be replaced by Matt Floca, its current vice president of facilities operations, after the president became frustrated with a slew of negative headlines about his revamp of the arts institution, multiple sources told CNN.

Trump alsoposteda pair of renderings of what he said the "new, highly improved" building will look like on Friday afternoon, both actions making clear that the project is still top of mind despite global conflicts.

Beatty's lawsuit includes sworn declarations from experts in performing arts center management who warn about significant impacts to bookings, donors and staff should the two-year closure, which Trump says will start in July, take effect.

Deborah Borda, the president emerita of the New York Philharmonic, oversaw major renovations and construction at multiple major venues, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and David Geffen Hall in New York City.

"In my professional judgment, the harms from a closure of the Kennedy Center at the scale and on the timeline announced are severe, immediate, and cannot be quickly reversed," Borda said in a sworn declaration.

She added: "The visiting performers who are removed from the schedule will find alternative venues and will not return quickly. The staff who depart will be difficult to replace. The donors who redirect their giving will develop new institutional loyalties. The audiences who fall out of the habit of attending will … require years of effort and investment to recover."

And Mallory Miller, the Kennedy Center's former assistant manager of dance programming, described the long-cultivated relationships her former team has worked to manage with ballet companies.

Those relationships, she said, "are not abstractions. They are relationships developed over many years by experienced arts administrators who understood those companies' artistic needs, earned the trust of their directors and managers, and could credibly represent the Kennedy Center as a committed long-term partner."

Miller warned that the closure "will sever whatever goodwill remains and will likely be understood by those companies as a definitive rupture, not a temporary pause."

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A pilot from Alabama had just been promoted to major in January and had been deployed less than a week when the refueling aircraft he was aboard crashed in Iraq this week, killing him and five others, his brother-in-law said Saturday.

Iran US Plane Down

Also aboard was an Ohio man whose loved ones remembered for his smile, his parents said.

The Pentagon hasn't yet revealed the identities of the six, but families began revealing who had died Saturday.

The aircraft was in "friendly" airspace, supporting operations against Iran, when an unspecified incident involving another aircraft occurred, according to U.S. Central Command. The other plane landed safety, U.S. military officials said.

The Ohio Air National Guard's 121st Air Refueling Wing said in a Facebook post late Friday that three of the dead were airmen who served in the Columbus-based unit.

"We share in the sorrow of their loved ones, and we must not forget the valuable contributions these Airmen made to their country and the impact they have left on our organization," according to the 121st Air Refueling Wing's post.

A new father and a new major

Alex Klinner, a pilot from Birmingham, Alabama, had just been promoted to major in January and had been deployed less than a week when the fatal crash occurred, his brother-in-law, James Harrill, said Saturday while confirming his death.

Klinner was the father of twin seven-month-old children and also had a 2 year old son, said Harrill, of Atlanta, who helped set up a GoFundMe site for Klinner's family.

"It's kind of heartbreaking to say: He was just a really good dad and really loved his family a lot — like a lot," Harrill said.

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An outdoorsman who enjoyed hiking, Klinner was also ready to help others. When Harrill last saw him in January, Klinner had shoveled Harrill's vehicle out of the snow during a family wedding.

"Alex was one of those guys that had this steady command about him," Harrill said. "He was literally one of the most kindest, giving people."

A man with a ready smile

Sgt. Tyler Simmons of Columbus, Ohio, also was among six service members who died Thursday in the crash of a KC-135 Stratotanker, his mother, Cheryl Simmons, confirmed on Saturday. Cheryl Simmons said she was making funeral plans for her son.

In a statement obtained by WCMH-TV in Columbus, Tyler Simmons' family said it was saddened beyond measure to hear of the fatal crash.

"Tyler's smile could light up any room, his strong presence would fill it. His parents, grandparents, family and friends are grief stricken for the loss of life," they said.

The refueling aircraft is a mainstay in the US military

U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, has said the crash occurredon a combat missionbut was over "friendly" territory in western Iraq. Military officials said it is being investigated and was "not due to hostile or friendly fire."

The KC-135 aircraft refuels other planes in midair, allowing them to fly longer distances and sustain operations without landing. The plane can also be used to transport wounded personnel and conduct surveillance missions, according to military experts.

The Congressional Research Service says the Air Force last year had 376 KC-135s, including 151 on active duty, 163 in the Air National Guard and 62 in the Air Force Reserve. It has been in service for more than 60 years.

Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri; Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Walker from New York.