After 80 years of being missing in action, a fallen U.S. soldier from Livermore was laid to rest on Friday.
Inside the San Leandro mortuary, a family honored their late relative who had been missing since WWII. American flags lined the streets, and a motorcade procession took place to honor fallen bombardier 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Vincent Kelly.
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WATCH HEREKelly was 21-years-old when his B-24 bomber was shot down somewhere over the Pacific. His death in combat had shattered his parents and three siblings, family members said.
"We went to the cemetery with my grandmother and my mom all the time, every Memorial Day for sure, but he wasn't talked about. Their pain was too deep," said Diane Christie, Kelly's niece.
Twelve years ago, Scott Althaus, a cousin of Kelly's, began researching his long-lost relative and it eventually pinpointed a location near Papaua New Guinea where his cousin's plane could have fallen.
A family member then contacted Project Recover, a nonprofit organization dedicated to recovering American MIAs and POWs. In 2017, the organization took up the search for the missing plane.
"With the most advanced detection technology, underwater robots, sonars, they spent 2 weeks looking for this plane, and they hadn't found it," Althaus said.
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Then, two days before the mission wrapped up, they found the plane.
The U.S. Navy dive team came and recovered Kelly's dog tags and bombardier ring.
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SIGN UP "In November 2024, we were notified that Tommy's remains had been positively identified and he was coming home," Althaus said.
Thanks to photos and a collection of letters Kelly wrote home, relatives said they feel they know his story.
"I was just happy. Just happy, he's home," Althaus said. "It was an impossible story, it is an impossible story."
Christie said she was emotional seeing Kelly's remains returned.
"It's probably like watching a movie—you know, where you get emotional. Why am I so sad, and why am I crying? It's about things that happened in life. It's a real story, and it's our story," she said.
