John Ware Kelsey
Second Lieutenant
United States Army Air Forces
John Ware Kelsey, the only child of Claude Raymond and Emma Harriet Ware Kelsey, was born on 10 February 1914.
John graduated from Burlington (Iowa) High School with the Class of 1932 and Grinnell College, in Grinnell, Iowa. After graduating from Grinnell College, he became an advertising copywriter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, later opening his own office in New York City. He once was a reporter for the Burlington Hawk-Eye Gazette.
While in New York City, John enlisted in the Army’s Air Corps as an aviation cadet on 7 February 1941. He received his preliminary training at Albany, Georgia; Lowry Field in Denver, Colorado; and Savannah, Georgia. Appointed a Second Lieutenant on 26 October 1941, John was immediately sent to the Philippines, arriving there on 21 November 1941. In May 1942, John’s parents received a letter from the War Department stating that John was reported as Missing-In-Action at the time of final surrender in the Philippines on 7 May 1942.
Part of a 25 February 1942, letter that Jack sent his parents:
“Dear Mother and Dad:
By the time this reaches you it will probably have been read more frequently than “Gone With the Wind,” but since I won’t have to pay for a stamp I guess I have no kick coming. Long before you have read this I hope to have been, able to communicate via speedier communication for I have no doubt that there is no little consternation ‘round the home fires concerning the safety of the one and only.
At this writing I am pleased to report that my only wounds have been inflicted by mosquitos. Although my waist line has diminished I assure you that my state of health has never been better. And after all what’s a little avoirdupois. Truly, when I finally return to the good old United States it can be said that I have participated in one of the greatest adventures of my age. Then at least I will be able to tell you some of the experiences that have made this escapade exciting, interesting, and colorful. Already I can say that I wouldn’t have missed it for an intangible amount of money.
Our deprivations have been many in terms of civilian standards; yet it is amazing how quickly we have been able to adapt ourselves to our new environment, readjust our mode of living and appreciate life with an entirely new sense of evaluation. Old commonplaces have become luxuries. Our palates quiver with excitement at the thought of sizzling sirloin steaks, ice-creams, cold beer; but have you ever been able to step into your back yard to feast on fresh pineapple, bananas, papaya, peanuts and cocoanuts?
A hot shower after eighteen holes of golf was always appreciated, but then we had never indulged in the delicious cold wetness of a gushing mountain stream. And what has happened to that medium of exchange, that evil tremptress, that glittering metal called money? What is money? I have a shirt, a pair of pants and a cigarette, but so does Joe. If I have two, Joe will have one of them. In the meanwhile my wealth accumulates as Old Mr. Whiskers continues to chalk up a few black marks on the credit side of my ledger. The heavens are my roof and God is the landlord. While he doesn’t provide very good plumbing, the view from my window is inspiring and the rent is free.
The war itself has been a strange fracas. For military reasons I must refrain from comment on anything of a specific nature. Let it suffice that we have been bombed, shelled, straffed and sniped. We are relatively safe from all of these devices of death because of our foxholes and trenches. One colonel has said that the war consists of 90% of digging, 9% food-gathering and 1% fighting. So far, that has been our case. It has all been highly interesting, extremely vigorous and decidedly thrilling. However, when the allied forces have subdued the forces of conquest, most of us will be more than willing to relax in an easy chair or an air-cooled movie approximately nine thousand miles from the scenes of our adventure.”
On 13 December 1944, John and approximately 1,618 other American POWs left the Philippines for Japan aboard the Japanese hellship Oryoku Maru. Unfortunately, the Oryoku Maru was attacked and sunk by planes from an American carrier. John survived and was transported to another Japanese hellship that finally arrived in Moji, Japan on 31 January 1945. He was one of approximately 400 American POWs that survived the trip. However, it appears that he was wounded during one of the American attacks on the Japanese hellships. According to the Fukuoka No. 22 Branch Camp (Tadakuma Coal Mine) roster, John had a “fracture of the inside sort part of the left joint and the left 3rd and 4th phalanxes by the bomb fragments and acute colitis.”
John died from his wounds on 15 March 1945, while in the Moji Hospital (Kokura Military Hospital), Kokura, Kyushu. One can only imagine the pain and suffering that John and his fellow POWs endured aboard the Oryoku Maru.
Second Lieutenant John Ware Kelsey, United States Army Air Forces, is buried in Burlington’s Aspen Grove Cemetery.
Source of information:
1. The Burlington Hawk-Eye Gazette, 27 May 1942, page 2.
2. Oryoku Maru web site; http://www.oryokumaru.net/
3. Fukuoka No. 22 Branch Camp (Tadakuma Coal Mine); http://homepage3.nifty.com/pow-j/e/list/pdf_e/Fukuoka/Fukuoka22.pdf
4. Roster of men from the Brazil Maru taken to Moji Hospital (Kokura Military Hospital) Kokura, Kyushu; http://people.tamu.edu/%7Ejwe7/BMKMHroster.html
5. The Burlington Hawk-Eye Gazette, 10 August 1942, page 2.
6. The Burlington Hawk-Eye Gazette, 29 December 1942, page 2.
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