'A loss carried far too long'

After 80 years, a Mountaineer comes home.

By West Virginia University

November 11^th, 2024

Preston County native Jay Manown’s college career at West Virginia University was cut short just before his graduation when he was drafted into World War II. The mining engineering student became a naval flight instructor and then was ordered to a tour of duty in the Alaskan Theater, and on to the Pacific where he was an aviator on board the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. The mission: A dozen Hellcat fighter planes to sink Japanese aircraft carriers.

On Sept. 10, 1944, the Japanese were ready for them. Antiaircraft fire from the surrounding Palau Islands hit the belly of Lt. Manown’s plane, sending it in a violent spiral into the sea. The plane was deemed unrecoverable.

“No one left behind” is a military credo that dates to the beginning of modern warfare. Project Recover, which has returned 75 bodies or remains of U.S. soldiers, pilots and sailors to their families, helps keep that promise. Manown’s plane, the “Christian Duchess,” named for his mother whom he adored and teased relentlessly, according to his surviving family, was recovered 10 years ago, along with the bodies of the other crew members, Anthony Di Petta, the gunner, and Wilbur “Archie” Mitts, the radioman and flight navigator.

Manown's remains were given a funeral with full military rites at the Kingwood Funeral Home, with burial in Maplewood Cemetery.

From left: AOM1c Anthoney Di Petta, Naval Aviator Lt. Jay Manown and ARM1c Wilbur Mitts pose in front of their TBM-1C Avenger torpedo bomber aboard the USS Enterprise (CV 6). (US Navy Photo)

‘Forever linked’

The families of these men who served together and died together spent the next several decades filling the empty spaces with only memories and sadness. Manown’s niece, Rebecca Sheets (BS, ’70) and Suzanne Nakamura and Diane Ward, the nieces of Di Petta and Mitts, have communicated since their uncles’ bodies were recovered and they met for the first time at Manown’s funeral. “We consider ourselves a special kind of family now,” Sheets said.

‘We never forgot about you, Jay’

Manown’s family kept his memory alive through his photos displayed around their home, telling stories about his life and keeping the walnut dropleaf table and other woodworking projects he’d completed in use. His parents erected a stone at the local cemetery prior to their own deaths.

Ken Craig’s father, Jay Craig, was Manown’s first cousin, and took his son to the cemetery every Memorial Day to place flags on the graves of soldiers. “This is my cousin Jay’s grave, but his body isn’t here. He was shot down in the Pacific Ocean in World War II. Maybe someday we can welcome Jay home.” Jay Craig, who sent his DNA to Project Recover to help identify Manown’s body, died last year. Ken Craig took his son to the cemetery on Memorial Day this year to place a flag on Jay Manown’s grave and to tell him the story of an empty grave for what would be the last time.