On June 13, 2014, Raymond Russell Kelly stood at the American Memorial Park on Saipan, looking out toward the water. Seventy years earlier, he was a twenty-two-year-old crewman with the 505th Bomb Group, taking off from Tinian’s North Field—then the largest operational airstrip in the world—to fly B-29s into the skies above mainland Japan. By the time the war ended, he had flown thirty-five missions.
Speaking with reporters from the Marianas Variety and Kyodo News, Kelly remembered the opposition his squadron met over the industrial target of Nagoya, where anti-aircraft fire ripped through the clouds. "They gave us a lot of opposition, particularly over Mitsubishi," he said. When asked about the firebombing raids over civilian cities, his answer carried no posturing, only the weight of decades. "It bothered me," he acknowledged. "In order to win the war, we figured we had to do it."
Kelly returned to the island alongside five other veterans—both American and Japanese—for the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Saipan and Tinian. His children traveled with him. Arriving at Saipan International Airport, they were met by representatives of the anniversary committee and the Marianas Visitors Authority. "We're proud of my father and the role he played in preserving our country's freedom," his daughter Maribeth remarked.
His service with the 482nd Squadron, 313th Bomb Wing, earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross. On Tinian, during separate commemorative ceremonies, he spoke of the men who went up and never came down. He recalled one flight over Shimonoseki, where his plane pushed through heavy flak and severe weather. The airframe took hits, but the crew walked away. "Although we got a lot of holes in our planes, none of us were ever touched," Kelly said, assigning their luck to a higher power.
Before leaving Saipan, Kelly expressed gratitude for the local community, whose hospitality and physical memorials keep the memory of those losses clear.
Born in San Francisco on March 29, 1922, Kelly enlisted in the Army Air Corps in May 1943 at twenty-one. His military career stretched across three decades, spanning World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, until his retirement from the U.S. Air Force in 1970.
Postscript — Lieutenant Colonel Raymond Russell Kelly (U.S. Air Force, Ret.) passed away on February 1, 2016, in Santa Rosa, California, less than two months after the death of his wife of sixty-five years, Nancy. A San Francisco native descended from a pioneer California family, he served nearly three decades in uniform across World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He is survived by his five children—Jim, Dave, Terry, Dan, and Maribeth—ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
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