WENDOVER, Utah — At the historic Wendover Airfield, a once bustling hub of World War II military training, a new effort is underway to ensure that thousands of fallen aviators are finally honored.
The proposed National World War II Training Memorial would pay tribute not to those who died in combat, but to the more than 15,000 service members who lost their lives in training before they ever saw battle.
The site’s history holds deep personal significance for Lynn Kenley, who grew up on Wendover Base in the 1940s. His father, Fred Kenley, served as the base’s fire chief beginning in 1941.
“History has always been a very important part of my life. He’s the only hero I’ve ever had.” Kenley said.
Fred’s service often meant responding to emergencies at a moment’s notice, with the rare but devastating airplane crash being among the toughest. “We could always tell when it had been a bad crash,” Lynn said, adding, “It always affected Dad. And yet, for some reason, he made it through it.”
Those crashes in total took the lives of 130 aviators at Wendover during the war years.
Nationally, the number was over 15,500, which was about one in five of all U.S. aircrew losses during World War II.
“In retrospect, finding out that there were 130 that died here in training… It’s about time,” Kenley said.
Organizers say the memorial would feature a bronze panel depicting aviators heading off on a mission, not realizing it would be their last, and several other panels etched with every training casualty’s name.
The memorial would be constructed outside the hangar that the Enola Gay and the other atomic B-29s were outfitted in.
Here is the rendering of what it would look like:
Retired Air Force General Paul W. Tibbets IV, grandson of Colonel Paul Tibbets Jr., the celebrated pilot of the Enola Gay and former commander of the Wendover base, spoke about the importance of remembrance for those aviators. “Most people won’t understand that if they just read it in a paper somewhere, or they picked up an article, and they say, ‘I don’t get that.’ If they come here, they’re going to get a whole different experience,” Tibbets said.
For Tibbets, the memorial’s significance is informed both by his family history and his own military career. “I was fortunate enough to spend time with him before he passed away,” he said. “As someone who served for 30 years and I’m still alive, I’m blessed and fortunate to still be here. So many were not. And so many of the people that were so close to my grandfather were not.”
Tibbets’ career mirrored parts of his grandfather’s path, flying the B-2 bomber and serving as wing commander of the 509th Bomb Group, the same unit his grandfather commanded in WWII.
Unfortunately, he also carries personal memories of loss, saying, “I reflect many times on my roommate from the Academy who, at the 10-year point after graduating from the Academy, was killed in a KC-135 crash. And that gets to me every time,” he admitted.
The proposed memorial would stand as a permanent reminder of all those training casualties, including the comrades of Tibbets’ grandfather and the colleagues of Lynn Kenley’s father. “Yeah, it’s about time we started to recognize the sacrifices of the past,” Kenley said, adding, “To dedicate 31 years of his life to this, he would be jumping for joy.” Referring to his father.
Click here to learn more about the project and donate to the Airfields' mission to construct this memorial.
