Livermore WWII airman returns home for Memorial Day funeral 81 years after being shot down
The remains of U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Thomas V. Kelly Jr., a bombardier from Livermore who went missing in action in the Pacific Theater during World War II, arrived back in the Bay Area Friday ahead of a Memorial Day funeral in his hometown.
Kelly was a bombardier assigned to the 90th Bombardment Group, 320th Squadron when he and 10 other crew members aboard a B-24 Liberator were shot down over Hansa Bay, Papua New Guinea, on March 11, 1944. Exhaustive searches for any trace of the wreckage or crew members' remains were unsuccessful and they were designated as non-recoverable, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
In 2017, his aircraft was located by a nonprofit group named Project Recover, and following a 2023 recovery mission by the DPAA, Kelly's remains were positively identified in September 2024. Three other crew members' remains were also recovered.
On Friday afternoon, Kelly's remains arrived at Mineta San Jose International Airport for a procession to a mortuary in San Leandro, including a military escort, military honor guard, Veterans of Foreign Wars motorcyclists, and first responders.
Kelly was 21 years old when he was shot down. He had enlisted in the Army Air Force shortly after graduating from Livermore High School.
Scott Althaus, a family member who became intrigued about finding out more about his relative who was killed in the war, began researching the circumstances of the incident and the whereabouts of the plane more than a decade ago. He and other family members worked with Project Recover to eventually locate the plane's wreckage.
"It's almost indescribable what this is going to mean for us," said Althaus. "Twelve days after Tommy died in 1944, the family gathered [at Livermore's] St. Michael's Church for a funeral mass, but without a funeral, because his body never came back, and this Memorial Day, our extended family living relatives, will be gathered in the same church with a casket and with a journey from that church to where his parents and his sister are buried, and he's finally going to be laid to rest with them in a way that they never could have imagined."
Kelly will lie in repose at Monte Vista Memorial Gardens and Mortuary in Livermore following another procession from Santos Robinson Mortuary in San Leandro on Sunday. He will be laid to rest with full military honors on Monday.
Monte Vista Mortuary said Sunday's noon procession route is as follows:
from Santos Robinson Mortuary:
• West on Estudillo Avenue
• Right on E 14th Street
• Right on Callan Avenue
• Right on Harrison Street
• Left on Estudillo Avenue
• Right on MacArthur Blvd
• Left to merge onto I-580 East
• Take exit 54 right onto First Street
• Right onto Las Positas Road
• Right onto Las Colinas Road
• 600 ft turn left
Arrive at Monte Vista Memorial Gardens – 3656 Las Colinas Road
Monday's funeral at Livermore's St. Michael's Catholic Church and burial at St. Michael Catholic Cemetery were to be private ceremonies. A public funeral procession at 11 a.m. will wind through downtown Livermore, passing by the home where Kelly grew up, Livermore High School, and Stockmen's Park.
Depart St. Michael Catholic Church:
• North on Maple Street
• Left on First Street
• Left on South L
• Left on Seventh Street
• Left on S Livermore Avenue
• Right on East Avenue
Arrive at St. Michael Cemetery – 3885 East Avenue
