By Ruth Roberts – MAY 29, 2025

LIVERMORE — On March 11, 1944, U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly Jr., a 22-year-old Livermore resident and World War II bombardier, was shot down over Hansa Bay, Papua New Guinea. He and 10 other crew members aboard the B-24 bomber were declared missing in action. For decades, the families of the missing men held out hope that their loved ones’ remains would be recovered.

But it wasn’t until 2013 that Kelly’s second cousin, Scott Althaus, a political science and communications professor at the University of Illinois, learned the details of Kelly’s final mission. Althaus and members of his extended family collaborated with a research team known as Project Recover to investigate the circumstances, which led to the discovery of the sunken wreckage of the plane, nicknamed “Heaven Can Wait.”

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By Ruth Roberts – MAY 29, 2025

LIVERMORE — On March 11, 1944, U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly Jr., a 22-year-old Livermore resident and World War II bombardier, was shot down over Hansa Bay, Papua New Guinea. He and 10 other crew members aboard the B-24 bomber were declared missing in action. For decades, the families of the missing men held out hope that their loved ones’ remains would be recovered.

But it wasn’t until 2013 that Kelly’s second cousin, Scott Althaus, a political science and communications professor at the University of Illinois, learned the details of Kelly’s final mission. Althaus and members of his extended family collaborated with a research team known as Project Recover to investigate the circumstances, which led to the discovery of the sunken wreckage of the plane, nicknamed “Heaven Can Wait.”

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By Ruth Roberts – MAY 29, 2025

LIVERMORE — On March 11, 1944, U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly Jr., a 22-year-old Livermore resident and World War II bombardier, was shot down over Hansa Bay, Papua New Guinea. He and 10 other crew members aboard the B-24 bomber were declared missing in action. For decades, the families of the missing men held out hope that their loved ones’ remains would be recovered.

But it wasn’t until 2013 that Kelly’s second cousin, Scott Althaus, a political science and communications professor at the University of Illinois, learned the details of Kelly’s final mission. Althaus and members of his extended family collaborated with a research team known as Project Recover to investigate the circumstances, which led to the discovery of the sunken wreckage of the plane, nicknamed “Heaven Can Wait.”

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2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly Jr. was buried beside his parents and sister in the California town he left in1943.

For many years after 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly Jr. was killed in World War II, his parents kept his empty bedroom like a shrine to their only son.

In the local cemetery, they placed a memorial stone etched with his name and an image of his Army Air Forces bomber. His body had been lost when the plane was shot down and sank to the bottom of the ocean.

Kelly was 21. His mother, Theresa, saved his letters, including one that arrived weeks after his death. When his mother, father, Thomas Sr., and sister, Betty, died, they were laid to rest by his stone.

On Memorial Day, 81 years after he was killed off the coast of New Guinea, and two years after his remains were recovered from the underwater crash site, Kelly was buried beside his family in Livermore, California.

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By John Krinjak
Published May 25, 2025 8:18pm PDT

The Brief

  • The remains of Lt. Thomas Kelly Jr. were returned to his hometown of Livermore, 81 years after he was declared missing in Action in World War II.
  • A procession and memorial ceremony were held Sunday to honor Kelly’s sacrifice.
  • This moment was made possible by 12 years of research, a recovery mission, and cutting-edge technology that located and identified Kelly.

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