One Bangor veteran who never came home from World War II finally received a memorial.
Lt. Austin “Ozzie” Rodney Keith of Bangor, an Air Force pilot who died in World War II, received a memorial plaque with the help of historian, author and Bangor native David Bergquist. The monument, which sits adjacent to Keith’s parents and sister in a New Hampshire cemetery, was dedicated on May 11.
Keith graduated from Bangor High School in 1937 and attended the University of Maine in 1940. There, he was active in the Maine Masque, a student theater group at the university, and earned acclaim as an actor.
He joined the Air Force in January 1942 after the attack on Pearl Harbor, became a B-29 bomber pilot and was assigned to bomb Japan. On one mission in February 1945, he and his crew were lost over the Pacific Ocean. Their remains were never found.
“Austin is one of almost 80,000 young Americans who never returned from World War II,” Berquist said. “They still are what I call ‘among the missing,’ because they never found their remains. That’s true of Austin too.”
Without Bergquist’s efforts, Keith may never have gotten a memorial marker at all. Keith’s parents and sister moved to New Hampshire after his death. They have since died, and neither Keith nor his sister had children, meaning Keith has no remaining relatives.
Bergquist first learned of Keith in 2009 while doing research in the Bangor Public Library for a continuing education course he taught on Bangor history. Each day, he’d read another page of the library’s Book of Honor, which holds the names and descriptions of 113 World War II veterans from Bangor.
One day, he stumbled upon Keith’s page, which said he was a Bangor High School student and wrote a play, which Berquist wanted to read. That desire launched a search for Berquist’s play and any other information about him.
Bergquist reached out to Keith’s sister in 2010 only to discover she died in 2006. However, the sister’s former caretaker invited Bergquist to come to the family’s home in New Hampshire and search through materials Keith’s sister kept, but he didn’t find the play.
Berquist turned his search for the play to 95 boxes of materials from a UMaine drama professor that Keith had grown close with. In the 93rd box, Bergquist found Keith’s play, as well as 63 letters he sent to his professor.
By reading those letters, Bergquist said he got to know Keith, his hopes and dreams, and felt compelled to give him a proper memorial.
Keith had dreams of being a professional actor after the war, Bergquist said, because of his love for the theater.
“When he was stationed in different locations he participated in community theater, organized a radio program for his base and was an editor for several flight yearbooks,” Bergquist said. “Had he lived, he may have done very well.”
Keith’s plaque, Bergquist said, is also symbolic of all those who never never returned from the war and their families who never received closure.
“It’s a lesson to our current generation that we just don’t forget these people that were among us, had dreams and hopes, and gave their lives for their country,” Berquist said. “It honors someone whose life, all his dreams, were gone in an instant. If I could do this for every person who is still among the missing, I would.”
The representatives from the American Legion Post 1 and the ROTC Color Guard from the University of New Hampshire attended the memorial dedication ceremony.
The granite marker, provided by the Veterans Administration, reads “our cherished son, among the missing,” and lists his military honors, which include a Purple Heart and an Air Medal.
Bergquist also chronicled Keith’s story in his 2011 book, “Prelude to Courage, An Air Warrior’s Journey of Faith.” The book draws its name from a one-act play Keith wrote.
