The Gold Coast Bulletin

Family rejoices as airman’s WWII plane finally found

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TOM Kelly grew up on a Northern California farm and once thought of becoming a cowboy before World War II got in the way.

He enlisted in the US Army Air Forces instead, and on March 11, 1944, the 21-year-old 2nd lieutenant was aboard a B-24 bomber with 10 others when it was struck by Japanese anti-aircraft fire and plunged into the Pacific Ocean.

When the plane Kelly (pictured) and his fellow crew members flew, called Heaven Can Wait, was found at the bottom of a bay off the coast of Papua New Guinea, a wave of exhilarati­on – albeit one mixed with grief – washed over his family, including many mem- bers too young to have ever met him.

“This discovery of where the wreck is, of seeing pictures and videos of the wreck on the floor of Hansa Bay. My goodness, it brings closure,” Scott Althaus of Chicago said.

In 2013 Althaus launched a family-wide project to learn everything relatives could about the young man. A year ago Kelly’s family turned over what they learned to Project Recover, which seeks out military crash sites connected to cases involving those listed as Missing in Action.

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