Chapter 54’s namesake, Col. James Kennedy, has died in Washington, DC, where he was living in a Veterans retirement home. He and Dr. Shirley Kennedy, his wife, hosted our chapter meetings at his home in Goleta in our early days, before we began meeting at the Veterans Memorial Building. Col. Kennedy was a member of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, the elite all-AfricanAmerican unit of combat fighter pilots in World War II.
After the war, Jim participated in the Freeman Field Mutiny, when black officers insisted upon their right to use the Officers Club, which was still segregated in the late 40’s! He believed that it was this in his record that kept him from advancing beyond Lt. Col. Also of special interest to VFP was the fact that his Distinguished Flying Cross was awarded for making a second run in Vietnam under heavy fire, to get equipment to paratroops dropped in the first run, unauthorized by headquarters and a decision that would have likely gotten him discipline had he not succeeded.
Col. Kennedy’s wife, Dr. Shirley Kennedy, credited the military with giving her the opportunity to get her PhD, and the two of them always insisted that we treat the military and military personnel with respect. We have missed the influence of both of them since Shirley died a few years ago and Jim moved to Washington D.C. Jim was a life member of Veterans For Peace and never joined any veterans organization other than the Tuskegee Airmen.
Lane Anderson, VFP Chapter 54
by Rob Kuznia, May 6, 2006
James Kennedy, a Tuskegee airman and 30-year Goleta resident, has died. He was 84.
Col. Kennedy was among nearly 1,000 black Americans drafted and trained for World War II flying duty. They took their name from Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute, where segregated from bases with white airmen they learned to fly.
A retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and veteran of three wars, Col. Kennedy was also the husband of late UCSB black studies lecturer and community activist Shirley Kennedy.
Although he didn’t see combat in World War II, he saw plenty in the Korean Conflict and Vietnam. He worked a stint with military intelligence in Japan, just before returning to the cockpit for Vietnam in 1965. There, Col. Kennedy had the dangerous job of flying infantry into combat zones. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his efforts in Vietnam.
After hopping around the country and globe as a career military man, Col. Kennedy took his final assignments in Southern California, first at Vandenberg Air Force Base and then with the Space and Missile Systems Center in Los Angeles.
He retired shortly after, in 1972, and purchased a home in Goleta. He patronized jazz clubs, smoked fish and meats, and, at age 51, began building a 46-foot boat.
The boat took six years to build and, at one point, it became too large for the Santa Barbara Harbor, so Col. Kennedy moored it in Ventura. When he was in his early 70s, he and a small crew took his boat through the Panama Canal to the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, his wife — whom he met at their Chicago-area high school — was taking classes and later teaching them, at UCSB.
In December 2003, following the death of his wife Shirley, he moved to Washington, D.C., to be nearer his twin daughters, Royal Kennedy Rodgers and Shawn Kennedy. He also had two sons, Kevin Kennedy of Los Angeles and Colin Kennedy of Goleta, and three grandchildren.
He died Monday at Sibley Hospital in Washington, D.C., of complications from pneumonia.
Col. Kennedy was born in Monroe, La., on Nov. 18, 1921, but moved with his family to Chicago before grade school. He excelled in the sciences and, after deciding to become a military professional, earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio.
Shawn Kennedy described her father as reserved, but kind.
“I was a talker, my sister was a talker, my mother was a talker, but my father never, ever gossiped,” she said with a chuckle, speaking by phone from Washington, D.C. “So it would be difficult to get personal information from him about anyone, including himself. It was frustrating to know that he kept secrets.”
It wasn’t until about five years ago that she learned of his combat medal.
“If it had been me . . . it would have been a news flash in the family: ‘Guess what, my papa won the Distinguished Flying Cross!’ ”
“He was really cool,” Shawn Kennedy said. “All my girlfriends used to really fall in love with him. He was good looking, cool, and charming.”
Col. Kennedy was also an active member of the Santa Barbara chapter of Veterans for Peace.
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