Robert Kay, a columnist for the Honolulu Star Advertiser, is currently working on a family memoir.
Editor’s Note:
Immigrants, as this recent presidential campaign reminds us, have not always been perceived favorably. Serving in America’s armed forces has historically been a significant pathway for immigrants to this country.
This Veterans Day I’d like to republish this remembrance of Henri (aka Hank) Carbonell, an Army Air Corps pilot who died when his P-39 Airacobra fighter plane crashed shortly after take off from Hato Field in Curaçao, the Dutch West Indies.
Hank immigrated from France prior to the Second World War with his parents. An only child, he became best friends with my father (John Kay) also an immigrant, while they attended San Francisco Junior College from 1940-1942. After my father died in 2015, I found Hank’s obituary as well as the above photo. Quite coincidentally, I found a photo of his grave in at the National Cemetery near San Francisco courtesy of findagrave.com .
With no living relatives in this country, someone like Hank might be easily forgotten and I thought it fitting that he be honored.
How do you dig up information about a guy who perished 81 years ago?
I was fortunate to be in contact with Hank’s family in Catalonia (Spain) and with help from Ancestry.com which provided access to public databases on census data, voter registration, passport applications, passenger lists and the like. Footsteps Researchers of St. Louis, Missouri was very helpful in obtaining info from U.S. military archives.
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Henri Carbonell, known to his friends as Hank, was a native of the Pyrénées Orientales, a mountainous area straddling the Spanish/French frontier. Known locally as Cerdanya, his family traces its roots back to the 14th century to Llivia, a tiny Spanish enclave. Born in Saint Andre, France on December 11, 1921, Hank and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1924.
After time spent in Southern California, the family eventually settled in San Francisco in 1938, where his father, Salvador, was employed as a cook, at a hospital. Hank attended Polytechnic High School in San Francisco and graduated in 1939.
According to a family member, the lingua franca at the Carbonell home would have mostly likely been a combination of French and Catalan.
After high school Hank enrolled in the Hotel & Restaurant Management Program at San Francisco Junior College. A March 11, 1940, photo illustrating a college course booklet, shows an impeccably groomed Hank in a waiter’s uniform, standing at military attention, with fellow student-waiters, behind a long table of seated hotel executives. (See photo above).
On the 29th of December, 1942 following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hank enlisted in the Army Air Corps.
Hank graduated from the Air Forces Advanced Flying School at Luke Field, near Phoenix, AZ in the Class of 42-G on July 26, 1942. In early 1943 he was assigned to the 32nd Fighter Squadron at Hato Field, Curaçao, part of the Netherlands Antilles.
The 32nd Fighter Squadron had the responsibility to track German U-boat “Wolfpacks” which were attacking oil tankers and refineries. Keeping the sea lanes safe was crucial for the allied war effort in North Africa which relied 100% on oil refined in the Antilles.
Hank’s life tragically ended on July 21, 1943. On take off from Hato Airfield the engine of his Bell P-39D Airacobra fighter (s/n 41-6862) failed. The aircraft crashed beyond the runway, in rough terrain.
He was subsequently buried in U.S. Military Cemetery (Curaçao) which was located on the U.S. base near Hato Field.
A letter from Hank’s parents to my father, Lt. John Kay serving in Italy, read like a postscript:
Dear Lieut. Kay,
We want to thank you for your Easter greetings. It was very nice of you and appreciated it very much. We think a lot about you and pray hard that he protects and brings you back safe home to your parents.
Through one of his friends we now know that our poor boy’s accident was caused by a faulty motor. He had to land on rough country which he did but was thrown out and died shortly after without regaining consciousness well.
But now we know that he is buried what happened.
Sincerely,
Mr. & Mrs. S. G. Carbonell
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According to Jos Rozenburg, a former Royal Netherlands Air Force officer who served in the Antilles, the U.S. cemetery on the island of Curaçao was carefully maintained during the war and ceremonies were held there regularly. Following hostilities, in mid-1946 The U.S. Government informed the Dutch of their intention to visit the islands and disinter the bodies to bring them back to the USA for burial in a cemetery of choice by their relatives.
Rozenburg stated, “Because of the very intense cooperation during the war and the warm, personal relations that resulted from it, the Dutch told the Americans that they wanted to hold a full military ceremony, closing all other activities in the capitol, Willemstad, on that day.”
On 6 February 1947 the American military ship USAT Round Splice arrived offshore to accept the twelve caskets. Several days before the vessel’s arrival a U.S. military delegation was flown in, led by a General and an Admiral and consisting of, among others, an Honor Guard and a military band.
The bodies had been disinterred before and placed in wooden caskets. The caskets, draped with the Stars and Stripes, were placed in a military chapel until it was time. Then they were ceremonially brought to the port by Dutch troops. The last mile through the center of town they were one by one hand carried by Dutch Army and Navy personnel, all the way to a barge that would bring them to the ship outside the port.
Rozenburg, commented, “It is unique for me as a retired military man, to see soldiers other than your own nationality, carry the bodies of fallen comrades. I think it reflects the very special bond there was (and is) between our countries that the U.S. would allow Dutch troops to carry their dead towards their final destination. And I think it was considered by the Dutch as a great honor to do so and expressed our great gratitude for their service.”
“So”, said Rozenburg, “this is how 1st LT USAAF Henri Carbonell left the Island of Curaçao on 6 February 1947. As senior officer his casket would have been the first of the twelve. And the entire island population came out to pay their respect as he was hand carried past them by his Dutch comrades.”
On April 27, 1948 First Lieutenant Hank Carbonell was buried at the Golden Gate National Cemetery.