Finding Aid for the A. John F. Kelley Interwar and Second World War personal accounts, photographs and documents 2018.161.w.r
Andrew Harman
Center for American War Letters Archives
12/6/2018
Leatherby Libraries
Chapman University
Orange, CA 92866
speccoll@chapman.edu
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
box WWII 21, folder 15, folder 1
Series 1, Personal accounts and correspondence 1928 - 1945 April 24
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.
box WWII 21, folder 16, folder 2
Series 2, Photographs 1919 - 1933 October 15
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.
- 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.
box WWII 21, folder 17, folder 3
Series 3, Military documents and other materials 1933 December - 1941
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".
box WWII 21, folder 18, folder 4
Series 4, Clippings 1941 December 10 - 1945 June 29
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
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Newspaper clippings
Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941.
United States. -- Navy
World War (1939-1945) -- Equipment and supplies