Kayser, Arthur 'Artie' Lee

Date of birth:: 1917 (Elm Grove, Ohio County, West Virginia)
Date of death:: December 30th, 1942 (Lost at sea)
Mentioned on:: American Cemetery and Memorial Manila
Service number:: 0-791116
Nationality:: American

Biography

According to the 1920 Federal Census, he lived with his grandparents in Triadelphia, Ohio County, West Virginia.
On 19 July 1940, he enlisted as a Private in the Army Air Corps at Ft. Hayes, in Columbus, Ohio (Army Serial Number 15010570). According to his enlistment records, he completed four years of high school, was single and without dependents, was 5’ 7" tall and weighed 150 lbs. NOTE: On 12 Oct 1942, Artie married Dora Elizabeth Wark (date of birth: 1 July 1922, Tuolumne, CA), from Alameda, CA, at the Fort Post Lawton Chapel in Seattle, King County, WA.
On 26 Dec 1942, he had a brush with death.
While on a bombing mission to Kiska, his P-38’s right engine fuel line was severed by a bullet and his left engine suffered damage, too. In his disabled P-38 fighter, Lt. Kayser babied her more than 192 miles, before she had enough. He made it to Tanaga Island, just 56.5 miles of Adak. At 3:25 pm. she crashed about 150’ from shore. Lt. Kayser swam in his flight suit to shore, where he waited for a rescue until 5:45 pm – in the bitter cold. Aside from a bump on his head, he was said to be suffering from the chills. Four days later, he would become another brave young man whose name was to be forever etched in granite in three different states. On 30 Dec 1942, while piloting one of fourteen P-38s on a bombing mission, with twelve bombers and an unknown number of OA-10 Catalinas to Japanese-held Kiska Island, Aleutians, Alaska, Lt. Kayser and another P-38 pilot, 2nd Lt. John A. Leighton, were both shot down and killed. John Haile Cloe’s book about war in the Aleutian Islands, said that on 30 Dec 1942, when all the P-38s returned to Adak, Lts. Kayser and Leighton "could not be accounted for." One each of the B-25s and the Catalinas were also shot down. In total 14 men lost their lives in that one mission.

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