WWII airman’s remains positively identified 80 years after final mission
By Tessa Robinson
Posted on Nov 17, 2024
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), in partnership with Project Recover and other experts in the field, has announced that they have positively identified the remains of 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly, Jr., who had been Missing In Action since World War II. The 21-year-old from Livermore, CA, served as a bombardier in a B-24 bomber named Heaven Can Wait that was shot down over a remote bay in Papua New Guinea on March 11, 1944. In 2017 the missing bomber was located underwater at a depth of over 200 feet by the nonprofit group Project Recover, leading to a 2023 mission by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to recover crew remains from the wreck site. This was the deepest underwater MIA recovery effort ever undertaken by the U.S. government.
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The 11-man crew of Heaven Can Wait was part of the 320th squadron of the “Jolly Rogers” 90th Bombardment Group and was on a mission to bomb Japanese anti-aircraft batteries around Hansa Bay when their B-24 was shot down by enemy fire causing it to crash into the ocean. Present-day Papua New Guinea was the site of military action in the Pacific from January 1942 to the end of the war in August 1945, with significant losses of aircraft and servicemen.
The wreckage of B-24 “Heaven Can Wait” found by Project Recover Partner, Scripps. Photo: Scripps — Project Recover is a collaborative effort to enlist 21st-century science and technology in a quest to find and repatriate World War II MIAs to bring recognition to the service member, closure for their families, and to help a grateful Nation keep its sacred promise to bring our MIAs home. As a result of Project Recover’s missions, there are 84 MIAs awaiting recovery at this time (January 2020). Since 1993, Project Recover (formerly The BentProp Project) has located 30+ downed World War II US aircraft associated with scores of MIA service members.
The wreckage of B-24 “Heaven Can Wait” found by Project Recover Partner, Scripps. Photo: Scripps — Project Recover is a collaborative effort to enlist 21st-century science and technology in a quest to find and repatriate World War II MIAs to bring recognition to the service member, closure for their families, and to help a grateful Nation keep its sacred promise to bring our MIAs home. As a result of Project Recover’s missions, there are 84 MIAs awaiting recovery at this time (January 2020). Since 1993, Project Recover (formerly The BentProp Project) has located 30+ downed World War II US aircraft associated with scores of MIA service members.
Project Recover set its sights on finding Heaven Can Wait after being presented with four years of research on the circumstances of the crash, compiled by family members of one of the B-24 crew members seeking closure for their lost relative. These data included historical eyewitness narratives from official military reports, mission documents, and diary entries from crew members on other aircraft in formation with the B-24 during its flight. In October 2017, a team from Project Recover performed an archaeological survey of Hansa Bay using scanning sonars, high-definition imagers, advanced diving, and unmanned aerial and underwater robotic technologies. After covering nearly 27 square kilometers of the sea floor over 11 days, Project Recover located the debris field of the B-24 bomber at a depth of 213 feet.
https://www.wearethemighty.com/feature/wwii-airmans-remains-positively-identified-80-years-after-final-mission/
