Physical Description: 0.025 Linear feet(1 folder)

Language of Material: English.

This series contains six personal accounts of the service of CCM A. John F. Kelley, USN written aboard naval vessels during the Interwar period in the late 1920s and the invasions of Peleliu and Okinawa during the Second World War. These personal accounts appear to be intended for an audience, not just a diary, but are not letters with a specific reader mentioned.

1) His first account, typed, is about a trip to China and the Philippines in 1928. Discussed is leaving San Diego to Honolulu, then Guam, and the weather on the trip including a typhoon outside of Guam. The ship reached China on August 5, 1928 where he discusses the Chinese people, slums, fishing "junks" and the general poverty of the people.

2) Aboard the USS Black Hawk, typed, he writes about the history of the US taking the Philippines from Spain, Admiral Dewey, and the culture of the people, including language, food, and living conditions. He also wrote a paragraph specifically about Manila.

3) This is a New Years message, typed December 31, 1928 and into the morning of January 1, 1929. He is still in the Philippines and describes Christmas in the tropics and all of the decorations that the locals had set up in their small village between Manila and Cavite. He also discusses lizards and snakes, the Wall City (Intramuros), and has particularly negative words for the convents and the way the women who join them are treated. He says that "their version of Christianity" is brutal and primitive and praises the American missionaries doing good work for the health of the locals.

4) This account, he calls "article five," is also typed and discusses Japan in 1929. He left Manila on March 5 and visited Nagasaki, saying how beautiful it is with the cherry blossoms and people. He also visited Nikko and Tokyo and goes into detail about an encounter with Fuki Miura, a 16 year old Japanese girl who was the daughter of a high ranking official who was friendly to Americans. She shows him their customs and how they mix Christianity with older Japanese culture, and have a Japanese and American part of their house. He points out that this visit was unique, "very few foreigners are so honored."

4/29/2019: A typed transcription provided by the donor was added to the collection, as well as a postcard written to Kelley from Fuki on August 26, 1929.

5) This hand written account takes place over the course of five days from aboard the USS Pinkney, an evacuation vessel in the Pacific, during the invasion of Peleliu. He tells the story of joining the Navy 28 years prior, and then goes into detail for 23 pages describing the heat, the invasion, bombardment, Marines and CBs, and especially the casualties. He watches the battle for some time and aids in bringing aboard wounded, saying "I shall never forget Pearl Harbor - nor this" (he mentions Pearl Harbor frequently). He makes the point that all of the wounded don't complain, that there are "no sissies."

His ship later goes south to take Angaur (currently Ngeaur) southwest of Peleliu in the Palau island group. He has sympathy for the wounded men invading this island that have been oversees for, in his opinion, far too long by this point. His friend, Ensign H.A. "Tommy" Thompson, United States Navy brings a pad of pink death certificates and they think they may use them all. There is even mention of war crimes; that wounded men claim they burned English speaking Japanese trying to surrender with a flame thrower, though he is not sure he believes the story. He also mentions a hospital ship, the USS Samaritan, that was actually the ship on which he returned home from China in 1931 when it was called the USS Chaumont before being outfitted to be a hospital.

6) This 19 page handwritten account is from an island group called Kerama Rhetto [sic], 25 miles southwest of Okinawa. His ship was at Okinawa on D-Day and went out to sea in a zig-zag pattern for a week, nearly missing a torpedo attack and then back to Okinawa to witness the fighting, which could be seen plainly. He discusses at length the civilian prisoners and their treatment and then a detailed depiction of Japanese planes being shot down, one in particular. This leads to a discussion of sympathy for the pilot just doing his job, though throughout his two accounts of battle he frequently mentions being glad that they get what they deserve, in his opinion, for Pearl Harbor. His sympathies also lie in that the Japanese do not get the truth from their leaders, and hopes his government will never be like that. He also discusses a Korean prisoner of war and the sympathy he has for the Korean people "under the heel" of the Japanese for so long and lastly gives details about the burn victims that come aboard and how the doctors know so much more than at the beginning of the war.

7) Added 4/29/2019: A four page document that is a continuation for Form 57 typed by Kelley and describing his own military Service and experience. The date is not clear but he mentions his service at this point has lasted 25 years.

8) Added 4/29/2019: One letter from the Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, dated July 17, 1946, thanking Kelley for his service to the war effort after his separation from service.

Physical Description: 0.025 Linear feet(1 folder)

Language of Material: English.

This series includes 48 black and white photographs and one photo negative of (presumably) CCM A. John F. Kelley, USN in China and the Philippines, as well as one official photograph of the USS Macon mooring at Naval Air Station Sunnyvale, California after a flight from Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey on October 15, 1933.

The photos include:

• 1 photo, CCM Kelley and Asian woman
• 1 photo, CCM Kelley and another sailor with Asian women and men
• 1 photo, church
• 1 photo, sailors on a small boat in harbor
• 1 photo, CCM Kelley on a rickshaw with a "driver"
• 1 photo negative, CCM Kelley standing with an officer in wreckage, in envelope from Oakland Tribune, addressed to A.J.F.Kelly, Small Boats Mainenance, Naval Landing Forces Equipment Depot, Albany 6, Calif.
• Added 4/29/2019: 34 small b/w photographs of Kelley and others in Manila, Philippines and at home from 1919 through the 1930s, 7 large b/w photographs of Sunnyvale, California as well as a dance, two women (signed) and a boat, 1 b/w photo print of Kelley in uniform.

Physical Description: 0.025 Linear feet(1 folder)

Language of Material: English.

This series contains documents and supporting material related to the service of CCM A. John F. Kelley, USN during the Interwar period. The series includes an information file on the USS Macon, a price list for the commissary store at Naval Air Station Sunnyvale in California, as well as a bill for the store, a service record for CCM Kelley (compiled by the donor), as well as the email correspondence between the donor and the archivist.

The information sheet on the USS Macon has detailed measurements and capacity numbers, as well as information on changes that had been made, and was written by the Goodyear News Service at USNAS Sunnyvale. The USS Macon was built by the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation.

Added on 4/29/2019:

One sheet, typed, "Information for Beneficiaries and Dependents of Navy Service Personnel"

One map, 18x18.5 inches, "Plant of Macao".

Physical Description: 0.01 Linear Feet(1 folder)

Language of Material: English.

This series contains six clippings, four added to the collection on April 29, 2019, and are related to the service of CCM A. John F. Kelley, USN and his family during the Second World War.

• One photocopied clipping, "Examiners mapping underwater wreckage," Herald and News, Klamath Falls, Oregon, October 5, 2006
• One photocopied clipping, "Pear Harbor Warrant Officer Here for Visit," describing when Kelley was a Chief Warrant Officer returning to his family on leave after the Pearl Harbor attack
• One photocopied clipping from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin was sent to Kelley's daughter Johnette from her Aunt Vivian on December 10, 1941 and contains a "blackout poem
• One photocopied clipping containing a column written by Eleanor Roosevelt on December 8, 1941. The date of the clipping, December 25, was the day that Kelley's wife and daughter boarded a ship from Pearl Harbor to return to the mainland
• One clipping dated June 28, 1945 entitled "Vallejo Man Survivor of Jap Suicide Dive on Ship," describing Kelley's experience of a Japanese suicide plane attack on the USS Pinkney
• One clipping dated June 29, 1945 from the Oakland Tribune. This clipping contains photos and descriptions of the USS Pinkney after the suicide plane attack, with an image of Kelley inspecting the wreckage