Summary: A shot-down P-38 is discoverd 40 yards from an Italian beach. It is identified as belonging to a now deceased American ace. Divers recover a piece of the wreck and send it to the ace's adult son, as a memento of his father.
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/52643.html (requires log-in)
Man gets link to family past
BY STEVEN MAYER, Californian staff writer
e-mail:
smayer@bakersfield.com | Saturday, May 20 2006 8:10 PM
As part of the famed 94th Fighter Squadron, [World War II fighter ace Donald "Chick" Kienholz] survived being shot down over Italy and barely escaped death in 1948 when a B-29 he was in crashed and burned, killing 16 of the 19 aboard. He even made it through Korea and Vietnam mostly in one piece.
Then on Dec. 27, 1973, the decorated pilot who had survived flak and flame and thousands of hours behind the stick, went down in bad weather in a nondescript commercial plane in Washington state.
"It's ironic the way he died, after everything he had been through," said Bakersfield resident Del Kienholz, who was only 10 when his father was killed in that fiery crash.
"My knowledge of this stuff was nonexistent," Kienholz said of his dad's military exploits. "We never talked about it."
In more recent years, Kienholz's knowledge has increased exponentially as he has pored over military records, talked with men who knew his dad and shared information with siblings.
Then this spring, he received a gift from the most unlikely of places -- a metal engine plate pulled from 40 feet of water off the coast of Italy.
An Italian fisherman had snagged his net on a downed World War II-era P-38 Lightning. Parts of one of the engines were salvaged, thanks to an Italian diver.
A serial number showed the engine belonged to The Bar Fly, the nickname Donald Kienholz had given his airplane more than six decades before.
"I was in shock. My wife was in tears," Kienholz said.
Italian aviation historian Giuseppe Versolato also got involved and sent the engine piece to Kienholz, complete with a commemorative plaque.
"His dad was not flying The Bar Fly the day it was shot down," said Del's wife, Phyllis Kienholz. "But that doesn't take anything away from the importance of this.
"How many kids can say they have a piece of their dad's World War II airplane, an airplane that went down more than 60 years ago?"
For Del Kienholz, the piece of metal seems almost like a direct connection to a dashing 20-year-old fighter pilot who, along with millions of others, was fighting to save the world from Hitler's fascism and Nazi domination in 1944.
That memento -- along with his dad's original flight jacket -- is a material reminder of a man who did his primary flight training at what is now Minter Field near Shafter, a man who before he turned 21, had six confirmed air combat victories against Nazi military aircraft.
"This is something we can pass down to our children," Del Kienholz said. "So they know our history and lineage."
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