Lieutenant Frank A. Kappeler

Frank Albert Kappeler was born in San Fransico, California on 2 January 1914 and died at age 96 years old on 23 June 2010 in Santa Rosa, California. His father was George Frank Kappeler and his mother Nonie Margaret Callaghan Kappeler.  He grew up in Alameda.

When the family moved to Alameda Frank went to Alameda elementary school and graduated high school in 1932 and Polytechnic College of Engineering, Oakland California with a BS degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Frank also had a Part-time job for southern pacific railroad while he studied.

He married Betty Jo Kappeler during May 1957, the couple had one daughter Francia Kappeler born in El Paso during 1958.

After bombing their targets during the Doolittle raid they had to get away, all the way down the home islands of Japan, across the East China Sea, and then to the interior of China. It became clear they would never make the Chinese landing field that was their destination. The territory below was like patchwork: part of it was in Japanese hands, part not. The crews did not know which was which.

At midnight, in clouds, 10,000 feet over China, the crew bailed out. "I had no idea where we were," Kappeler said. "I couldn't see anything. We all said our prayers." Kappeler's plane was still short of its assigned targets in Yokohama when it dropped its bombs on what appeared to be an oil refinery, then continued on to China. Than the entire crew bailed out in darkness when the fuel ran out, then went in search of friendly Chinese willing to help them avoid Japanese troops.

Frank A. Kappeler (second from left) in China after bombing Japan and bailing with his crew above China.

He landed all right, and in the morning, he saw someone he took to be a Chinese soldier. "I said 'I am an American' to him," using the only Chinese phrase the flyer had been taught. Kappeler demonstrated. It sounds bit like "Lushu hoo megwa fugi."

"It worked, I think," he said. "Sometimes even now, I try it out at a Chinese restaurant."

The people in the area - he had landed near Chuhsien in Chekiang province - helped him out. The crew of his plane had bailed out one by one, and were spread over 20 miles, but the Chinese came to the rescue, helped Kappeler and the others, and took them by mountain trails to areas not controlled by the Japanese. They fed him, put him up in their houses. They were wonderful, he said. "They took good care of me."

The Chinese paid a bitter price for helping the American raiders. The Japanese military decided to teach the Chinese a lesson: Troops later swept through the areas the Americans had passed through, burned villages and killed men, women and children. Some say a quarter of a million Chinese paid with their lives for the aid they gave the Americans.

As for Kappeler, he was taken to Chungking, wartime capital of China, met Generalissimo Chaing Kai-shek, and eventually went home.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek posing with members who participated in the Doolittle Raid on Japan. From left to right: 1st Lt. Frank A. Kappeler, Major Charles R. Greening, 1st Lt. Kenneth E. Reddy, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, 1st Lt. Lucian N. Youngblood, 1st Lt. Eugene F. McGurl, Jacob Earl "Shorty" Manch and Captain Rodney R. Wilder. 

"He was very special guy," said Tom Casey, whose position as managing director of the Doolittle Raiders includes setting up the reunions that bring no income to the vets but produce revenue for the hosting non-profits.

Casey said by phone from Sarasota that among the Raiders, Kappeler was regarded as an officer's officer. "He was not physically big," Casey said. "But gentle, very kind. And he had a very big heart."

Dementia took a toll on Kappeler's life in his last years. 

Frank Kappeler, whose failing health prompted his wife of 53 years to request hospice care a week befor he died, was 96. "We thought he had weeks, maybe months, but it didn't turn out that way," Betty Jo Kappeler said.