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Boxed Graduation Gunner - Lloyd R Kennedy bio


graham
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Now all you need is the 44-20 book to get a photo of the gunner! Super nice set!

 

Cheers

John

 

I tryed a NARA search but with no luck.

 

Graham

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I tryed a NARA search but with no luck.

 

Graham

 

 

ARMY SERIAL NUMBER 39216772

NAME KENNEDY#LLOYD#R#########

RESIDENCE: STATE OREGON

RESIDENCE: COUNTY MULTNOMAH

PLACE OF ENLISTMENT SEATTLE WASHINGTON

DATE OF ENLISTMENT DAY 14

DATE OF ENLISTMENT MONTH 12

DATE OF ENLISTMENT YEAR 43

GRADE: ALPHA DESIGNATION Private

GRADE: CODE Private

BRANCH: ALPHA DESIGNATION No branch assignment

BRANCH: CODE 02 No branch assignment

TERM OF ENLISTMENT Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law

SOURCE OF ARMY PERSONNEL Civil Life

NATIVITY BRITISH NORTH AMERICA or CANADA or LABRADOR or NEWFOUNDLAND

YEAR OF BIRTH 19

RACE AND CITIZENSHIP White, citizen

EDUCATION 2 years of high school

CIVILIAN OCCUPATION Skilled welders and flame cutters

MARITAL STATUS Single, without dependents

COMPONENT OF THE ARMY Selectees (Enlisted Men)

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Ancestry.com

Veterans Grave sites:

 

Name: Lloyd R Kennedy

Service Info.: SMSGT US ARMY AIR FORCES WORLD WAR II

Birth Date: 11 Dec 1914

Death Date: 14 Jun 2003

Service Start Date: 14 Dec 1943

Interment Date: 20 Jun 2003

Cemetery: Tahoma National Cemetery

Cemetery Address: 18600 SE 240th St Kent, WA 98042-4868

Buried At: Section 24 Site 987

 

Veterans Burial:

 

Name: Lloyd R Kennedy

Gender: Male

Birth Date: 11 Dec 1919

Death Date: 14 Jun 2003

Cause of Death: Natural

SSN: 538074639

Branch 1: ARMY

Enlistment Date 1: 4 Jan 1944

Release Date 1: 20 Oct 1945

Branch 2: AF

Enlistment Date 2: 1 Jun 1951

Release Date 2: 5 Nov 1952

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Obit:with photo Link

 

Lloyd R. Kennedy was born December 11, 1919 and passed from this world into eternity with Jesus on June 14, 2003. Lloyd moved to the Tacoma area as a child. He joined the Army Air Force in 1943 and was a veteran of World War II as a turret gunner on B-17 bombers in the European Theater. Lloyd reached the rank of Senior Master Sergeant in the Air Force Reserve and was supervisor of the 62 FMS welding shop at McChord AFB until his retirement in 1980.He enjoyed woodcutting and horseback riding in the hills during the early years of his retirement.Lloyd loved bowling and while his health permitted he was a regular at New Frontier Lanes, then Narrows Plaza Bowl. He continued to bowl almost daily even after his eyesight failed to enable him to see the pins. Lloyd is survived by his wife of 43 years, Grace; daughter, Julie; stepchildren, Janet (Donald) Kvamme, Robert Oberg, and Kenneth (Eileen) Oberg; and five brothers and sisters, Irene (Henry) Bonham, Margie Johnson, Beverly Maryott, Burley (Darleen) Norton, Shirley (Howard) Church, and; five grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. Services will be at 11 AM, Thursday, June 19, 2003 at the Mt. View Garden Chapel.Interment will be at Tahoma National Cemetery.

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Looks like he flew with the 457th Bomb Group from Glatton. However, there is one listing associated with that Group that shows him as being aboard a crashed plane early 1945 and killed. Discrepancy should be resolved.

 

There is one of the best collections of vintage Hi-RES images posted online of this Group called the Zemper Collection.

 

Wonderful period artifact. Ribbons, if complete, are short the DFC which would have marked a complete tour.

 

PS

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Graham,

Great piece of history; Thank You for sharing. Thanks to the rest of the folks who pulled all the information together. Great Work :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Regards,

John

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Looks like he flew with the 457th Bomb Group from Glatton. However, there is one listing associated with that Group that shows him as being aboard a crashed plane early 1945 and killed. Discrepancy should be resolved.

 

There is one of the best collections of vintage Hi-RES images posted online of this Group called the Zemper Collection.

 

Wonderful period artifact. Ribbons, if complete, are short the DFC which would have marked a complete tour.

 

PS

 

Thanks Paul,

The 457th BG rosta lists a Sgt Lloyd R Kennedy Who is listed as the L/W Gunner of B17G 42-31630 PAKAWALUP. Which crashed on 2/20/45 near Alconbury Killing the crew.

I am not sure how to confirm the ASN of this particular Lloyd R Kennedy.

NARA lists 20 men of that name with various middle initials including 2 with no middle initial.

Also I notice the 457th BG rosta has a Lloyd H Kennedy [No 'H' in NARA list] So plenty of scope for a mix up.

 

Sarah, can you help :thumbsup:

 

Graham

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I had also run across the 457th BG while searching before, listing a Lloyd R Kennedy and another Lloyd H. Kennedy

Their message board stated:" I have photos of Lloyd Kennedy (the ballturret gunner on Lt. Mack's and Lt. Banes's crews)"

The message board doesn't specify which Kennedy, and of course we don't know how many "lloyd Kennedy's" were gunners.

 

Lt. Mack (quite a few on the roster):

Bernard R. Mack

Percy A. Mack

Percy C. Mack

Richard L. Mack

William T. Mack

and (George H.) Bane

 

But, I couldn't find any flight photos for either crew, regardless of the name variants.

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Here's the KIA "lloyd R. Kennedy"

 

"Pakawalup"

MACR: 42-31630

B-17G

Date: 2/20/1945 Alconbury

Crew:

 

Lt Richard L. Mack - p

Lt Donald E. Schick - cp

Lt John S. Nierengarden - n

Lt Ralph Bell - b

Sgt Robert F. Reublin - e

Sgt Charles Held - ro

Sgt Lloyd R. Kennedy - wg

Sgt Frank J. Eichenlaub - wg

Sgt Raymond V. Hunter - bt

Sgt Earl Whitmack - tg

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751st Bomb Squadron

457th Bomb Group

20 February 1945

Office of the Operations Officer, lists him on this crew that day... same ASN

 

LloydRKennedy.jpg

 

the day before, February 19th

 

LloydRKennedy2.jpg

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Yup, looks like he was on Mack's crew just before that day and just not the day it went down.

 

February 16th

LloydRKennedyFeb16.jpg

 

February 15th

 

LloydRKennedyFeb15.jpg

 

What's weird is I can't find a crew report for Mack's crew the day of... the 19th or the 20th...

The 16th is the last time I see Mack or any of Mack's crew.

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Kennedy arrived at Glatton about the same time as Al and they flew their first mission on the same day. Kennedy, however, flew 33 missions, 20 of them with Lt. Mack's crew. By some miracle, he was assigned to another plane the day that Mack's plane crashed at Alconbury [i have been searching for information about this incident, but can't find any details on the website]. He continued to fly with several other crews, before becoming a regular on Lt. George Bane's crew.

 

This was posted by Richard Torrello 3/8/2008 on the 457th BG web site.

 

Graham

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Kennedy arrived at Glatton about the same time as Al and they flew their first mission on the same day. Kennedy, however, flew 33 missions, 20 of them with Lt. Mack's crew. By some miracle, he was assigned to another plane the day that Mack's plane crashed at Alconbury [i have been searching for information about this incident, but can't find any details on the website]. He continued to fly with several other crews, before becoming a regular on Lt. George Bane's crew.

 

This was posted by Richard Torrello 3/8/2008 on the 457th BG web site.

 

Graham

 

This is a happy end to the story...so many I've researched went the other way, the guy was flying his last mission when he went down. In analyzing another Group's missions I found that the pilots tended to finish their tours one or two or three missions before the rest of the crew. Probably due to their taking a few more orientation missions at the beginning of their tours. That left other members of the crew to be assigned a new pilot for those last few missions, often just one more... If their co-pilot took over as PIC, they stood a pretty good chance of making it.

 

However, if they drew one of the new pilots, their chances went down considerably. I'm not sure of this, perhaps someone with the knowledge can chip in here, but it seems certain that over the course of flying a full tour, the pilots learned to read and avoid the flak patterns that came up after them, thus giving everyone aboard a better chance of being "where they ain't" when the AA rounds exploded.

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