The remains of a Livermore native and U.S. Army bombardier who died during World War II were finally returned to his hometown last weekend after more than 80 years of being lost at sea.
U.S. Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly Jr. was a Livermore resident who died in 1944 at the age of 21. Kelly was assigned to the 320th Bombardment Squadron, 90th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force before he was deployed to what is present day Papua New Guinea, according to the Monte Vista Memorial Gardens Mortuary website.
His remains were delivered to the Livermore mortuary last Sunday before being transferred to St. Michael Catholic Church for a Memorial Day funeral service where his distant family members and other community members gathered to get some closure.
“He was just like a brother to me,” Alice Bruns, a 98-year-old Livermore native who knew Kelly, told the Weekly “I was so glad to hear when they finally … found the airplane.”
According to a press release last year from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), Kelly left Papua New Guinea on March 11, 1944 in a heavy bomber aircraft — nicknamed “Heaven Can Wait” — along with the rest of his crew as part of a bombing mission.
While in the air, fellow aircraft crews who were in the same formation as the “Heaven Can Wait” witnessed as flames erupted from Kelly’s plane, according to the DPAA press release. As the fire spread, the plane was seen “pitching up violently before banking left and crashing down into the water.”
According to the Monte Vista Memorial Gardens Mortuary website, Kelly’s B-24 bomber was “shot down over Hansa Bay, Papua New Guinea, on March 11, 1944.” The DPAA press release stated it is believed anti-aircraft fire hit the plane, causing “un-dropped ordnance to explode.”
Several aircraft circled the crash site in hopes of finding any possible survivors but according to the mortuary, Kelly and his 10 crew members were declared missing in action.
Decades passed before Kelly’s aircraft was eventually located in 2017 by a nonprofit group named Project Recover.
The agency said that in 2019, a DPAA underwater investigation team surveyed the wreckage several times before an underwater recovery team excavated the crash site in 2023. During the excavation process from March to April 2023, the recovery team identified “possible osseous materials and various material evidence, to include life support equipment and identification tags.”
That evidence was reviewed and analyzed by DPAA scientists who — through the use of dental, anthropological analysis and circumstantial evidence — were able to identify Kelly’s remains. According to the agency, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System also used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome (Y-STR) DNA analysis to identify the Livermore native.
Kelly was officially accounted for by the DPAA on Sept. 25, 2024.
“Tommy left Livermore in 1942 to do his part in the war, and like so many others in that conflict he ended up giving more than he expected,” Scott Althaus, Lt. Kelly’s cousin stated in the mortuary’s website. “After more than eight decades he is finally coming home to a family that never forgot him, and to a community who can help us remember him.”
Kelly’s return home to Livermore started off in San Jose on May 23 where a military escort, military honor guard, Veterans of Foreign Wars motorcycle and first responder procession received his remains and transported them to Santos Robinson Mortuary San Leandro.
Then, on Sunday, a Military Receiving Ceremony took place as his remains were moved to the Monte Vista Memorial Gardens and Mortuary.
Members of the public were invited to pay their respects during the “Lying in Repose” ceremony at Monte Vista that same Sunday.
The following day, old friends like Bruns — who also had attended a special mass in memory of Kelly on March 23, 1944 at St. Michael Church — were present at the church again for the lieutenant’s funeral service.
Bruns said Kelly was best friends with her brother and that Kelly had frequented her parent’s old house in Livermore because that is where he had stored gas for his car. She said one of the last times she remembers seeing Kelly alive was when he went to her house to get some of that gas before dropping her off at her job at the time.
She said she always thought about Kelly over the years, which is why she was elated when she heard the news that his remains were located and that he would be coming home after all these years.
“When I’d see the Kelly plot (of land), all I could think about was ‘I hope they can find Tommy so he can come home and be with his mom and dad again,” she said. “It was so good to hear that they had found his plane … and that he was going to be coming home and he’d be with his mom and dad again.”
Another person who attended last weekend’s service and events was Kelly’s first cousin, Gerry Kelly, who shared common paternal grandparents with the lieutenant.
Gerry Kelly was about 9 years old when his cousin died overseas so he told the Weekly that he never really knew him but he did know Lt. Kelly’s sister, who died before her brother’s remains could make it back home.
“It’s unfortunate that she was not here for this welcoming home of her brother,” he said.
While he didn’t know his cousin too well, Gerry Kelly said he had seen photos of the lieutenant and his crew posing in front of their plane and he said it was beautiful to see so many people come out last weekend to pay their respects and finally get closure knowing that his cousin is finally home.
“It’s a closure. We know he’s home,” he said. “Some people went through a lot of work to make that happen and I thank them for that.”
