Seligman native killed in World War II recently buried in California
Sep. 20—A U.S. Navy airman who was born in 1920 in Seligman and killed while participating in an airstrike in 1943 on a Japanese-held island in the Pacific Ocean has been buried during a ceremony in Seaside, California.
Wilbur Archie Mitts, an aviation radioman, was 24 when he was killed along with the pilot and gunner in the crash of his TBM-1 Avenger, a single-engine, aircraft carrier-based torpedo bomber during an airstrike on the Palau Islands ahead of landings by U.S. Marines.
Mitts' identity was confirmed by DNA tests Feb. 23, and his remains were sent to his niece, Diana Ward, in Seaside earlier this month.
"It has been just a joy to learn more about him," Ward said in recent telephone interviews with the Globe.
Records show that witnesses at the time said Mitts' plane, part of Torpedo Squadron 20 flying off the carrier USS Enterprise, was last seen spiraling into the water violently a few hundred feet off Malakal Island after being hit by anti-aircraft gunfire.
The Department of Defense said the remains of Mitts and one other crew member were recovered by a group dedicated to recovering the remains of missing soldiers, sailors and airmen from World War II called Project Recover in expeditions to Malakal Island in 2019 and 2021.
Project Recover reported on its Facebook page that Mitts' remains were returned to California on Sept. 7, and burial was Sept. 11 at Mission Memorial Park Cemetery in Seaside, 78 years after the Navy officially declared him dead and awarded him the Purple Heart medal.
Ward, the daughter of Otis Mitts, older brother of Wilbur Mitts, said the family isn't sure when Wilbur Mitts, his parents and siblings moved from Seligman, but it was sometime in the late 1920s or early 1930s.
"While I was growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, Juniata Mitts, who was also called June. She was from there, and to her, Seligman and Missouri were the Garden of Eden she left behind. So from listening to her, I grew up believing everything was better there. I think the first three of her children were born there.
"At some point, they had to move away from that area for my grandfather to look for work," Ward continued. "Later, it got into the Depression years. I know they lived in Des Moines and they moved around. I think the last place they lived before my grandmother came out to the West Coast was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But Seligman is where she grew up."
Ward said her father told her that Wilbur Mitts was "his little shadow."
"They were very, very close growing up," Ward said. "He always said, 'Whatever I did, Wilbur did.' My father and Wilbur were active in boxing in the Golden Gloves. Wilbur won a Golden Gloves tournament in Oakland one time. I understand he was in 39 fights with only two knockdowns. My father was the first one to box. I have a little picture of when he's 17 and Wilbur is 15 with them sparring."
New information
The Department of Defense said Wilbur Mitts joined the Navy on Aug. 8, 1941, and was promoted Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. He became an aviation radioman Aug. 1, 1942, and served with Torpedo Squadron 27 aboard the smaller escort aircraft carrier USS Suwanee and with an Atlantic fleet patrol wing before moving to the West Coast and being posted aboard the USS Enterprise.
Ward said the recovery of her uncle's remains has opened doors that have allowed the family to learn so much about his service that they didn't know before.
"They had already brought up the gunner, Anthony Di Petta, who is from New Jersey," Ward said. "He was buried on July 11. His niece, Suzanne Nakamura, and I were brought into contact with each other by the media person in charge of the military side of all this. We just shared so much and from what we know of both of them, even though neither of us ever personally saw them or talked with them. We just know they had to be the best of friends. They sound like the same type of people, and it sounded like they were enjoying their service. I feel that my uncle probably was having the time of his life. He loved people."
When Mitts was lost, the Navy sent his footlocker to Ward's grandmother, and for a long time the family kept it just as Mitts left it the day he left on his last mission.
"We were surrounded by Wilbur's things growing up in my grandmother's house, Ward said. "His pictures were up, the pictures of the men in front of their plane, and picture of him and and notice of of his death sent from the president, and all those things were up. And my grandmother talked about him. My aunt talked about him. My dad talked about him, and his things were kept. The things that had come home that were kept carefully put away in a footlocker. We knew as children, we didn't break any of the rules. We never got into it or did anything. We were careful about asking questions because young children don't like to make the adults sad."
Ward said Wilbur Mitts' mother went to the beach frequently to honor her son.
"My grandmother couldn't have even visualized anything about where her son went down," Ward said. "She didn't even like the ocean. The first time she saw it, she just said, 'It looks very treacherous to me.' She was Midwest all the way, but I'm thinking it was on Memorial Day or maybe on birthdays, sometimes we would take flowers and she would say, 'I have to put them into the ocean because I have no place to put them for Wilbur.'
"So one of the things that gives me great comfort, and one of the reasons I decided, with my daughter's help, to bring him home to Seaside instead of putting him in Arlington or some other veterans cemetery, I just feel like I'm bringing him home. Finally, my grandma, if she was here, and I would have a place where she could put his flowers. For what little time I have left in my life, I can put flowers on his grave too."
