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Zeb Kilpatrick, a jumper in heroic POW liberation, dies at age 91

Zeb Vance Kilpatrick Jr., who participated as a young U.S. Army paratrooper in the daring airborne raid that liberated a Japanese internment camp in the Philippines, died on Wednesday at the Elizabeth House at age 91.


The son of Esther Talluah Fortune and Zeb Vance Kilpatrick Sr., Kilpatrick joined the Army soon after he graduated from East Flat Rock High School and went on to see some of the toughest action of the war fighting in the Pacific.
He served in the 11th Airborne Division Battery “C” 457th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion in the Pacific, a unit that went down in history for the famed Los Banos raid that freed internees in a carefully planned attack from the air and the ground on Feb. 23, 1945.

General Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. commander in the Philippines, ordered his subordinates liberate camps in their areas of operation as quickly as possible.
The Japanese had converted a former Agricultural School at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, a town on the island of Luzon some 40 miles southeast of Manila, into an internment camp for more than 2,000 civilians who had had the misfortune of falling into Japanese hands at the beginning of the war.
It fell to Kilpatrick and his fellow 11th Airborne jumpers to free them by attacking from the sky. Boarding nine C-47s at Nichols Field outside Manila at 0530, the paratroopers were flown to the prison camp site. At 7 a.m., when the unit’s leader, 1st Lt. John M. Ringler, stepped from the door of the lead C-47, the Los Baños raid was in progress.
“As the jump planes passed over the camp, the Japanese sentries were in the process of changing the guard, and the internees were lined up for morning roll call,” said an article on the raid published in World War II magazine. “The plan called for the recon platoon to attack the sentry positions and other Japanese strongholds as the troopers were floating to earth, but only two of the five teams were in position at H-hour. At the sight of the drop planes over Los Baños, the other three teams had to abandon stealth and rushed headlong for the camp. Nevertheless, the attack went off more or less as planned. By 0715, when Ringler had finished organizing his men and the first of the jump teams reached the camp perimeter, Los Baños was already under attack from three sides. A number of the guards, most of whom had turned out without weapons for morning calisthenics, were killed, while others fled for the hills.”
Jeff Miller has gotten to know many World War II veterans through HonorAir, the WWII veteran-honoring organization that he cofounded. He knew Zeb Kilpatrick long before that. Kilpatrick and his wife, Dot, were close friends of Miller’s parents, Bert Miller, and his wife, Kathryn.
“He was one of those crazy guys that jumped into that prisoner of war camp,” Miller said. “They jumped out of the plane at 500 feet. Colin Powell calls it the greatest military mission in history. I think there was one American casualty and they rescued 2,147.”
Although he was a participant in one of the most heroic missions of the war, Kilpatrick never talked of the Los Banos raid and the other heavy fighting he survived in the Philippines, where casualties were high.
Miller recalled almost forcing Kilpatrick to tell him about the raid during a reunion of the 11th Airborne veterans in Hendersonville about 15 years ago.
“I never could get Zeb to really open up about it,” he said.

After the war, Kilpatrick returned to Hendersonville and worked until his retirement in 1982 as an agent with Western and Southern Life Insurance Company. A member of First Baptist Church for almost 70 years, he served as a deacon and as an active member of the Friendship Class. He was a member of Hendersonville Country Club, where he enjoyed playing golf. He was an excellent cook and enjoyed entertaining. In later years he cherished spending time with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Dot Kilpatrick in 2010 and a son, Kyle Kilpatrick in 1974. He was also preceded in death by three brothers and four sisters.
Survivors include a son, Zeb Vance Kilpatrick III and his wife, Evona, of Hendersonville and a daughter Jan Kilpatrick Ballew of Greenville, S.C. He is also survived by four grandsons, Charlie Ballew of Oklahoma City, OK; Michael Ballew and his wife, Sommer of Greenville, S.C.; Seth Kilpatrick and Keith Kilpatrick, both of Hendersonville; a granddaughter, Blythe Royaards and her husband, Eric of Greenville, S.C.; and five great-grandchildren: Nikolas, Hendrix, Emma Kate, and Bennett Royaards and Zaiden Ballew, all of Greenville, S.C.; he is also survived by a very special friend, Ruth Makins, of Hendersonville, as well as several nieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 9, in the Church Street chapel of Thos. Shepherd & Son Funeral Directors conducted by the Rev. Steve Scoggins and the Rev. Travis Parker. The family will receive friends for one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. At other times the family will be at the home of Zeb’s son, Van Kilpatrick. Memorial contributions may be made to First Baptist Church, 312 Fifth Avenue West, Hendersonville, NC, 28739 or St. Jude’s Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, Tenn. 38105.