Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Kelley, A. John F. (Interwar and Second World War personal accounts, photographs and documents)
2018.161.w.r
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
Center for American War Letters Archives
Title: A. John F. Kelley Interwar and Second World War personal accounts, photographs and documents
Creator:
Kelley, Alfred John Franklin, Chief Carpenter's Mate, 1896-1951
source:
Orpinela, Johnette
Identifier/Call Number: 2018.161.w.r
Physical Description:
0.05 Linear feet
(1 folder)
Date (inclusive): 1928 - 1945 April 24
Abstract: This collection contains articles, photographs and documents from the service of CCM A. John F. Kelley, USN during the Interwar
and Second World War periods, from 1928 to 1945. Included are personal accounts of travelling the Pacific in peace time and
fighting in the Pacific during the Second World War, as well as documents pertaining to the USS Macon.
Language of Material:
English
.
Container: WWII 21
Container: 15-18
Container: 1-4
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Johnette Orpinela.
This collection is arranged by material type and chronologically:
- Series 1, Personal accounts
- Series 2, Photographs
- Series 3, Military Documents and other materials
Chief Carpenter's Mate Alfred John Franklin Kelley, United States Navy (12/17/1895 - 10/6/1951) was born in Georgia as the
oldest of ten children, though only five brothers and one sister survived to adulthood. He lived in Griffin, GA working in
a cotton mill when he decided to join the Navy just prior to the United States entering the First World War, September 15,
1916, at the age of 20. He served on the USS Vestal during that war as a seaman and was discharged as a coxswain in San Diego
on November 24, 1919.
He reenlisted in the Navy and served as a carpenter throughout the Interwar period, travelling through the Pacific and working
on the USS Macon. On January 25, 1936 he married Wanda Wardrip in Grant's Pass, Oregon and they had a daughter, Johnette (donor).
The family lived in Pearl Harbor when it was attacked and the ladies were immediately shipped out, with CCM Kelley rejoining
them in Oregon later.
CCM Kelley served aboard the USS Pinkney in the Pacific during the war and saw multiple island invasions. From the donor:
"The Pinkney was hit by a kamikaze. John Kelley had arranged for movies to be shown in the mess hall, so most of the crew
were there instead of in their quarters where the most damage was done. As Chief Carpenter, he was among those responsible
for making the repairs that enabled the Pinkney to return to San Francisco."
He retired from service on August 1, 1948 and accepted an offer to return to the Philippines under the American Baptist Foreign
Mission Board to help rebuild a college that had been bombed during the war. After returning to the States, he passed away
from a brain tumor at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland on October 6, 1951 at the age of 55. Naval doctors called it a service-connected
death, [from donor] "probably because he had served in both world wars and they didn't know what caused the cancer." CCM A.
John F. Kelley is currently interred at Arlington National Cemetary.
[Item title / description; Box "n" / Folder "n"], A. John F. Kelley Interwar and Second World War personal accounts, photographs
and documents (2018.161.w.r), Center for American War Letters Archives, Chapman University, CA.
For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this
collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.
This collection contains four typed and two long, handwritten articles written by CCM A. John F. Kelley, USN during the Interwar
period and during the Second World War. Also included are photographs of sailors with one negative, two commissary documents,
one page of photocopied clippings, and a photograph and file pertaining to the USS Macon airship. Also included at the request
of the donor are one service record created on a spreadsheet by the donor and one email exchange between the archivist and
the donor.
More materials, including photographs, clippings and written histories of Kelley's service were added on April 29, 2019. See
individual series for specifics.
There are no restrictions on the use of this material except where previously copyrighted material is concerned. It is the
responsibility of the researcher to obtain all permissions.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
World War (1939-1945)
Okinawa Island (Japan) -- History, Military.
United States. -- Navy
World War (1939-1945) -- Personal Narratives
Photographs
Newspaper clippings
Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941.
World War (1939-1945) -- Campaigns -- Northern Mariana Islands -- Tinian.
World War (1939-1945) -- Casualties
Battle casualties
World War (1939-1945) -- Philippines.
Orpinela, Johnette