Henry D. Kemper, Jr.

	NAME Henry David Kemper, Jr.	NICKNAME Bud	SERVICE NUMBER 415691
	UNIT VMSB-144 Radioman / Gunner	HOME OF RECORD 41 North Prospect Street Norwalk, OH	NEXT OF KIN Father, Mr. Henry D. Kemper, Sr.
	DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1924 at Norwalk, OH	ENTERED SERVICE July 10, 1942 at Detroit, MI	DATE OF LOSS May 25, 1943
	REGION Vanuatu (New Hebrides)	CAMPAIGN / AREA Efate	CASUALTY TYPE Non-battle death
CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS PFC Henry D. Kemper, Jr. was an aviation radioman and gunner assigned to VMSB-144, a Marine dive-bomber squadron stationed at Efate in the New Hebrides. The twenty-fifth of May 1943 was a training day for VMSB-144, with pilots making practice dives near Monument Rock. PFC Kemper and his pilot 1Lt. Samuel V. Taylor, Jr., were flying a Dauntless SBD-4 (BuNo 06856) as division leaders. Everything was routine until about 1330 hours, when Taylor started the attack run. His plane collided with the SBD flown by his wingman, 1Lt. George W. Huffman, Jr. One plane was cut in two, and the other apparently disintegrated. Two empty parachutes were seen falling from the wreckage, but no survivors were found. The accident claimed the lives of Taylor, Kemper, Huffman, and Corporal Paul Walker.
INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS —	LAST KNOWN RANK Private First Class	STATUS OF REMAINS Not recovered.	MEMORIALS Honolulu Memorial

Biography:
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According to the other pilots and radio gunners on the flight, none of them actually saw or even heard the collision of the two planes. Lieutenant D. O. Jones saw both Lt. Taylor and Lt. Huffman split their flaps and go into their dives with normal and adequate interval. After going into his dive, Lt. Jones, concentrating on the target, lost sight of the preceding planes and was unaware of any mishap until he began going through debris flying through the air. Looking up, he saw that the air was filled with parts of planes…. He saw the front part of [a] fuselage with one wing off corkscrewing down to [the] sea and the tail of a plane was likewise dropping. The other plane was apparently burst into fragments and pieces of it seemed to be raining down.

None of the four occupants of the two planes were ever seen. Two parachutes, however, were seen. One was falling in falling-leaf style, unbillowed and with nothing or no-one hanging from it. The other was billowed out and all three planes dived toward it at once, but the shrouds were settling over the water as the first plane reached it and had settled in the water as the second and third reached it.

A crash boat dispatched to the scene from Havanah Harbor reported reaching Monument Rock at 1540 where it picked up a rubber boat in container and part of a wing gas tank and saw first oil slick in the water. At 1600 a second oil slick was sighted about one half mile from the first slick. [The boat] secured the search at 1615 finding no trace of [the] four occupants of [the] planes….

– excerpt from the war diary of VMSB-144, 25 May 1943.