Visiting Arlington National Cemetery last year for Memorial Day, a tradition we wanted to make, I asked my mom about her cousin who was buried there.
MY MOM’S STORIES OF KENNETH
Remembering the stories while growing up, I first met him in the family photo album, over which I enjoyed turning the pages of sepia tones with 1940s and 1950s styles.
Something about reliving the past set in sepia tones pulled my heart strings even then.
My mom was a baby when my Uncle Byron landed in France on DDay, while Kenneth served as a tail gunner on a B-29 in the Pacific.
On June 5, 1945, Kenneth’s plane was shot down over Japan.
After the bodies of the crew were recovered six years later, they were buried together at Arlington National Cemetery.
MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2015
Sunday we arrived at Arlington National Cemetery on a beautiful breezy, yet slightly humid sunny day.
Every grave had been devotedly marked with the American flag, were also decorated with roses, a Southern custom for Decoration Day that began Memorial Day.
Although I’ve visited Arlington National Cemetery many other times, this time looking for someone in my family was intensely personal.
LOOKING FOR HIS GRAVE
In my hand I held the numeric information to find Kenneth’s grave, at Plot 12, bordered by Eisenhower, McClellan, Grant, and Bradley Drives.
Since Eisenhower Drive is near the entry point from the visitor center, that is where we began our journey.
As we came to McClellan Drive, we saw the large arch, an original entry gate, we found plot 12…a massive piece of ground with thousands upon thousands of graves.
Walking slowly to the first grave on the corner, we noted numbers on the backs of the graves.
We had many thousands to go before we found Kenneth’s section.
Noting the names and dates of those laying near me, I was surrounded by pages of history books that now put names to battle statistics.
From McClellan we turned left on Grant Drive where we were now only hundreds of markers away from Kenneth.
Walkin up the hill, we found more graves where we noticed some family members buried with the soldiers.
One baby only lived 6 months. Did the soldier ever get to hold his baby or was he overseas serving his country during that time?
Reading names, places, dates, wars, honors, family on the gravestones, how many stories have been lost to time.
At the bottom of the hill we turned up the next section of graves, where I sensed we were nearing Kenneth’s grave.
BETWEEN THE WEEPING WILLOWS NEAR A DRY CREEK BED
My pace became more deliberate as it approached a sunnier section of the cemetery between two weeping willows near a dry creek bed.
Slowing my steps, teardrops blended with weeping willows as the tombstone came into view…
KENNETH’S STORY
Born in 1923 near my mom’s hometown in Pennsylvania, his family moved to Kingston, New York where he attended high school, graduated, and worked at a department store.
Although he enlisted in the New York National Guard in July 1940, he was separated two months later because he was a minor.
Five days after Pearl Harbor, Kenneth enlisted in the Army Air Forces, trained in Albuquerque, New Mexico, then was stationed at Scott Field, IL and Walker Field, KS.
Somewhere in those few years he fell in love with Roberta, from Kingston. By 1943 they were engaged, and soon married.
In 1945, Kenneth deployed to North Field, Guam, as part of the B-29 crew in the
330th Bombardment Group aka Empire Busters.
B-29 TAIL GUNNER IN THE PACIFIC
All I know of Kenneth’s active-duty service is that by 1945 he was a tail gunner on a B-29, with the 330th Bomb Group, 459th BS, stationed in Guam.
Wanting to visit his wife by September for their wedding anniversary, he needed extra missions before taking leave.
Therefore, he volunteered for a mission he wasn’t initially required to fly.
JUNE 5, 1945 – CRASH IN A DRY CREEK BED
On June 5, 1945, PFC (Kenneth) Chatham climbed into a B-29 fortress dubbed City of Burbank aka Old Soldier’s Home with ten other crew mates.
Their mission was Kobe, Japan with 30 other bombers in a total armada of 473 planes.
In the bombing attack, Japanese fighters snared City of Burbank, flown by Lt. Schiltz, causing it to veer out of the formation.
After a spin and barrel roll it regained level flight when Japanese fighters pressed the attack.
At 30 feet, one of the eyewitnesses noted a wing had come off.
While the bomber spiraled down, 6 parachutes were seen ballooning into the air when the plane crashed into a dry creek bed.
Memorials from those who flew this mission and left testimony at the following sites:
- 56 Years Ago Today
- Pacific Wrecks, A Face without a Name Part II, by Michael Moscow
- 330th June Missions of 1945
- B-29s of the 459th Bombardment Squadron, 2LT W.A. Cameron, Bombardier K-9, witness to the crash of K-57: City of Burbank aka Old Soldiers Home with a photograph of the plane
- 459th Bombardment Squadron – photos of the crew (before Kenneth replaced one of them) and the memorial to them in Kobe.
MAY 30, 1946 – MEMORIAL DAY
Later Commanding Officer Frederick M. Hopkins, Jr. wrote these words to Kenneth’s wife: On Memorial Day, May 30, 1946, services were held for those who paid the highest price and those missing in action. It is our desire that you should know that we have a more personal appreciation of the heroic deeds of your loved one. He was a man of the Twentieth Air Force. His every flight, and his every mission was a personal act of service in the highest tradition of the Army Air Corps.
BURIED AT ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
Officially declared Killed in Action in June 1946, his remains, along with three of his crewmates, were recovered in 1951.
Together they were buried in a common grave at Arlington National Cemetery on March 13, 1951…near the weeping willows by a dry creek bed, among many others who, too, risked their lives so we could be free.
For more photos, check my Flickr set.
COMMENTS FROM MY OLD BLOG
The Quintessential Clothes Pen – May 25, 2015 at 7:39 PM – What a touching post. Thank you for reminding us what Memorial Day is about.
Best,
Quinn
