Top Photo: From left: Second Lieutenant Thomas V. Kelly Jr., First Lieutenant Herbert G. Tennyson, Second Lieutenant Donald W. Sheppick, Staff Sergeant Eugene J. Darrigan. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

In March 1944, a B-24D Liberator named Heaven Can Wait departed an airstrip as part of a bombing mission against Japanese targets along the northern coast of New Guinea. During the mission, it is believed that antiaircraft fire struck the plane, causing the bombs inside to explode.

Witnesses from other aircraft saw fire erupting from Heaven Can Wait’s bomb bay before the flames quickly spread to the tail. The plane, along with its 11-man crew, was last seen pitching violently before banking left and crashing into the sea.

Several other aircraft circled the crash site in hopes of locating survivors, but none were ever found. All 11 men aboard were declared killed in action. The crew were honored with an Air Medal and Purple Heart posthumously. 

But now, thanks to the dedicated work of researchers and scientists of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), four of the crew members of Heaven Can Wait will finally return to the United States, more than 80 years after their deaths.

The Search for Heaven Can Wait

After the war, the American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) conducted searches for missing personnel in the Pacific Theater, including at crash sites in New Guinea. After concluding searches in late 1948, AGRS officially determined in March 1950 that they were unable to find the remains of the crew members of Heaven Can Wait, and they were designated as nonrecoverable.

On Memorial Day 2013, Scott Althaus, a political science and communications professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Campaign, asked his mother for names of relatives who died in World War II. According to the Associated Press, his mother gave him the name of her cousin, Second Lieutenant Thomas V. Kelly Jr., the bombardier of Heaven Can Wait.

The family began collecting historical documents and eyewitness accounts of the loss of the crew. After four years, Althaus wrote a report that concluded that the bomber likely crashed off Awar Point in Papua New Guinea.

The crew of B-24D Liberator named Heaven Can Wait.  Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency 

The report was shared with Project Recover, a nonprofit that partners with the DPAA to help search for and locate missing American servicemembers. In October 2017, a team from Project Recover and Scripps Institution of Oceanography located the wreck of a B-24 in Hansa Bay while making sonar scans. In 2019, a DPAA underwater investigation team conducted several surveys of the wreckage and cleared the site of unexploded ordnance.

B-24D Liberator named Heaven Can Wait. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

In March 2023, DPAA returned to the site for its deepest underwater recovery mission ever, and an investigation team recovered possible remains and other evidence, including life support equipment and dog tags.

DPAA scientists used dental, anthropological and DNA analysis to identify and officially account for the remains of Kelly, pilot First Lieutenant Herbert G. Tennyson, navigator  Second Lieutenant Donald W. Sheppick, and radio operator Staff Sergeant Eugene J. Darrigan.

The AP reports that seven men who were on the plane are still unaccounted for, and a future DPAA mission to the site is possible.

Returning Home

Darrigan was buried with military honors on May 24, 2025, in his hometown of Wappingers Falls, New York. Kelly was buried on May 26, 2025, Memorial Day, in Livermore, California. Tennyson and Sheppick will be interred in the coming months.

The names of the crew of Heaven Can Wait are recorded along the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, along with others still missing from World War II. Rosettes will be placed next to the names of Tennyson, Kelly, Sheppick, and Darrigan to indicate that they have been accounted for.

The National WWII Museum is honored to support the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s (DPAA) mission to offer “the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation.” The Museum participates as a host institution for DPAA Research Partner Fellows who support the mission by contributing research on missing World War II personnel.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for Americans who went missing while serving our country, visit the DPAA website.