80 years later, the remains of a World War II pilot are identified as a Bay Area man

LIVERMORE, California. – After 80 years, a World War II army pilot who went missing has been identified. Officials say the man is a Levermeer resident.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency together with non-profit organizations, Project recovery, to positively identify the remains of 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly, a 21-year-old Livermore man who served as a bomber.

Kelly was shot down in his “Heaven Can Wait” B-24 bomber over a remote bay in Papua New Guinea on March 11, 1944.

In 2017, Project Recover discovered the airman’s remains more than 200 feet underwater.

Officials said enemy fire caused Kelly to crash into the ocean, and that the country was a site of military action from January 1942 to August 1945, with the loss of many men and aircraft.

“I knew I had a family member who was killed in World War II and was missing. I didn’t even know his name at the time,” Scott Althaus, Kelly Jr.’s cousin, told KTVU on Sunday.

Althaus conducts research on American military conflicts and is a professor at the University of Illinois.

He said he asked his family for more information and then began investigating his relatives on Memorial Day in 2013.

For almost five years he searched for information from people all over the world.

“We were able to provide that information to Project Recover, a nonprofit organization that searches for missing Americans from previous wars to identify where their remains might be found,” Althaus said.

Last year, the DPAA led a mission to recover remains from the wreck site. This recovery marks the deepest underwater recovery for a missing soldier by the U.S. government.

Project Recover said it found the remains when its team, using advanced diving and underwater robotic technologies, scanned about 17 square miles over 11 days.

Kelly and his jet were part of an 11-man crew from the 320th Squadron of the “Jolly Rogers” 90th Bombardment Group. They were on a mission to bomb Japanese anti-aircraft guns around Hansa Bay, the area where Kelly went missing.

Their search for Kelly and his Heaven Can Wait jet came about after years of Project Recover investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash and working with family members looking for a solution.

‘We started reading his letters and gaining more insight into the memories we have to fill in the gaps in our knowledge about him. We know that he was a young man who was very excited to serve his country and did exactly what he did. what he wanted to do. After the war, he thought about becoming a pilot and returning to Livermore,” Althaus said.

Althaus says Kelly Jr. attended Livermore High School, and that he still has relatives living in the Bay Area. Now the family is just looking forward to honoring his memory.

“For the Livermore community and the entire Bay Area, this is someone who has served all of us, and he is finally coming home,” Althaus said.

Althaus says the search for Kelly Jr. was one of the deepest discoveries the US military has ever made and a ceremony will be held for his cousin in Livermore in May 2025.