Six days after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, two Kewanee boys — Jack Marlow and his best friend, John Pletkovich — received orders to report for training at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas.
The Kewanee High School pals had just graduated from Western State Teachers College in Macomb where they had received flight instruction through the CAA (FAA's predecessor agency, the Civil Aeronautics Authority) training program and in October had passed the exam to enter the U.S. Army Air Corps' flying cadet program. With orders in hand, they left Kewanee for pre-flight training in Texas and in August of 1942, were commissioned as fast-tracked first lieutenants, received their "wings," and were sent off to fight in the air war against Germany and Japan. Marlow was assigned to fly one of six B-25s in the 381st Bombardment Squadron's 310 Bomber Group which had been activated in March.
Seven years ago, local history buff Kevin Skoglund stumbled across a photo of a World War II bomber with "The Kewanee Kid III" painted under the cockpit on its shiny, silver side.
With the help of the Kewanee Historical Society, it was learned that "Kewanee Kid" was the name of a plane flown by a decorated pilot named Jack Marlow. His name jumped into the headlines in April of 1944 when his plane went missing during a routine flight in California. The 25-year-old combat veteran had just been transferred there after completing 50 successful missions over German targets in the Mediterranean Theater and North Africa in 1942 and '43.
The wreckage and bodies of Marlow and an observer flying with him were found in July in a mountainous area about 65 miles from the base at Fresno. It was assumed the mystery of the "Kewanee Kid's" identity had been solved.
Fast forward to this fall and an announcement by a visitor to Kewanee named Tina Cox that her father, Ed Mitrani, was the "Kewanee Kid," based on the same "Kewanee Kid III" photo Skoglund had found, which was apparently taken at a base in Corsica, a large island off the west coast of Italy.
Cox and her brother, Jacques Mitrani, came to Kewanee last spring in search of family history. Going through the Kewanee Public Library's digital archives of Star Couriers, they came across the 2012 "Around Town" column inspired by the found photo asking "Who was the 'Kewanee Kid?'" They apparently missed the followup column revealing the results of the search which identified Marlow as flying a bomber by that name in WW II.
Faced with the new mystery of which of the two men really was the "Kid," local historians did some more digging and discovered that both Marlow and Mitrani – at different times — flew different planes with the "Kewanee Kid" name.
Mitrani, the son of Jewish immigrants, was five years younger than Marlow and graduated from KHS in 1942, after the U.S. had joined the war. According to his daughter, Mitrani started college but always wanted to fly and joined the Army Air Corps in 1943. He rose from first lieutenant to the rank of captain and flew 60 missions over well-defended enemy territory in southern France and Italy, successfully completing his runs and returning to base.
Mitrani was never shot down or injured by enemy bullets or flak and earned the nickname "Fast Eddy" because of his ability to dodge enemy fire. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross "for extraordinary achievement” while participating in serial flights as pilot of a B-25 type aircraft.
On April 10, 1945, Lt. Mitrani flew in an attack upon enemy troop concentrations at Conselice, Italy. Upon the approach to the target, shell fragments from intense anti-aircraft fire heavily damaged his plane. Courageously maintaining his crippled plane on course in the face of the accurate barrage, Lt. Mitrani enabled his bombardier to release his bombs “with devastating effect on this vital objective," according to his citation.
Looking deeper into both Kewanee men's histories, it was found that both had served in the same unit — the 381st Bombardment Squadron, 310th Bomber Group — and both flew B-25 medium range Mitchell bombers, named after General William "Billy" Mitchell, one of America's key architects of air power — but at different times and places.
Marlow completed his tour in December of 1943 and was rotated stateside. Mitrani was assigned to the unit in January of 1944 and flew through September of 1945, when it was deactivated at the end of the war.
Marlow was said to have flown a plane called "Kewanee Kid" overseas in multiple news stories which ran while he was missing in the spring and summer of 1944, but the plane apparently stayed overseas since he crashed in a different aircraft.
As with many veterans, Mrs. Cox said her father never talked much about his war experiences and apparently never mentioned a plane named "Kewanee Kid." She apparently made the "Kewanee Kid" connection when she saw that the photo was taken in Corsica, where she knew her father had been stationed.
How many men in that unit could be from Kewanee and have put the name "Kewanee Kid III" on their plane?
Looking at where the unit was stationed during the war, however, makes it clearer. According to the unit's combat history, missions originated from bases in northern Africa, specifically Algeria and Tunisia, in 1942 and '43, when Marlow was on the roster. From December of 1943 until the end of the war, while Mitrani was part of the unit, it flew out of Corsica (where the photo was taken) and Italy.
But why "Kewanee Kid III?"
In 2012, a WW II aviation enthusiast explained the "III" after Kewanee Kid" did not necessarily mean that preceding planes had been shot down. Crews were often assigned new planes due to damage or maintenance issues. According to the unit's history, in late 1943, the 310th received "the most heavily armed aircraft in the world" with a 75mm cannon and 14 50-caliber machine guns.
It is therefore reasonable to assume that plane is the B-25 shown in the Corsica photo and that it was flown by the only guy in the unit from Kewanee, Ed Mitrani. It is also reasonable to assume that Mitrani knew what had happened to his fellow Kewaneean, Marlow, (It was in all the papers), whether he knew him personally, or not. When Marlow left in December of 1943, the unit was stationed at Philippeville, Algeria. When Mitrani arrived a month later, it had moved to Ghisonaccia, Corsica, where he apparently decided to name his plane "Kewanee Kid II," which may have been the plane he was flying when it was damaged by anti-aircraft fire in April of 1945. When the new "gunslingers" arrived, his new plane became "Kewanee Kid III" and someone snapped a photo that launched a mystery which has hopefully now been solved. It also indicates that Mitrani was aware of previous planes named "Kewanee Kid" and "Kewanee Kid II."
Ed re-entered civilian life as a cowboy in New Mexico, a race car driver, a corporate pilot in Southern California, and a movie pilot for the movie "Catch-22," serving as Art Garfunkel's co-pilot. Mitrani started his own business flying tourists in his Cessna to the desert resort areas in southern California and was also a hotel manager for the Palms Hotel in Borrego Springs.
While living in Marina Del Ray, Mitrani owned a sailboat and was part of the Coast Guard Auxiliary fleet for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. He retired to Beverly Hills, Fla., where he died on Jan. 17, 2015, at age 90. In 2011, he took an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., where he visited the World War II Memorial and recall his days as the daring young pilot of a bomber called "The Kewanee Kid."