Notable Nu’s · Military Service
EP 362 · UCLA Class of 1951
Born
March 12, 1923, Sioux City, IA
High School
Lincoln High School, Seattle, WA
Pledged EP
1950
UCLA
Class of 1951
At 19, James Keeffe was flying B-24 bombers over Berlin. At 20, he was evading the Gestapo in occupied Holland with the Dutch Underground. At 21, he was a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III. He came home, earned his degree, and kept flying until he was 92.
James Keeffe Jr. was born on March 12, 1923, in Sioux City, Iowa, the third of six children. At the age of ten he went for his first ride in an airplane — a small biplane piloted by his father — and instantly acquired a love of flying that would shape every chapter of his life.
Early in 1941, Keeffe joined the National Guard and that summer entered the Civilian Pilot Training program, learning to fly at a small grassy airfield in Issaquah, Washington. Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor the 19-year-old joined the U.S. Army Air Force and, after months of rigorous training as a B-24 heavy bomber pilot, he and his crew arrived in England to begin flying combat missions over Europe.
On March 8, 1944, during just his fourth bombing mission — the target: Berlin — Keeffe’s aircraft lost two engines to enemy fighters over Holland, catapulting him into a world squeezed colorless by the ever-tightening fist of Nazi occupation.
Moving from safe house to safe house with the help of the Dutch Underground, Lieutenant Keeffe evaded capture for five harrowing months — in plain view of the enemy. During an escape attempt through Belgium he was betrayed, captured, and transferred under armed guard to the infamous German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft III — arriving just a few months after the famous “Great Escape.” He was a POW for the next ten months.
On April 29, 1945, Lieutenant Keeffe — along with 130,000 other Allied POWs — was liberated by elements of the 14th Armored Division under General George Patton and returned home to his family.
After the war, Colonel Keeffe enrolled at UCLA, became an initiated brother of Sigma Nu in 1950, and earned a degree in Meteorology in 1951. Following a period of employment with United Airlines, he joined the newly formed United States Air Force as a fighter pilot and weather officer.
Keeffe commanded several combat weather detachments serving in Korea during the Korean War and throughout the Cold War. In 1966, after logging over 6,000 hours of military flying and earning the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, the POW Medal, the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, and the Air Force Longevity Service Award with four oak leaf clusters, he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel and Command Pilot.
Following retirement, Keeffe went to work for Boeing and raised his family in a suburb of Seattle. He became active in Bellevue politics, serving on the Bellevue City Council and the East Bellevue Community Council for many years. He continued to fly at every opportunity — balloons, ultra-lights, jet fighters — until his entrance into Chapter Eternal at age 92.
“For more about the incredible life of this Notable Nu, read the book Two Gold Coins and a Prayer, penned by Keeffe’s son, which tells of his father’s incredible trials during WWII.”
— Epsilon Pi Chapter
Notable Nu’s is a series celebrating distinguished members of the Epsilon Pi Chapter of Sigma Nu at UCLA.
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