Master Sergeant Kennedy was a crew member of a B-29A Superfortress Bomber with the 371st Bomber Squadron, 307th Bomber Wing based at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. On September 8, 1950, while returning from a bombing mission over Korea, his aircraft crashed into the East China Sea five miles north of Okinawa, killing eight crew members. His remains were not recovered. His name is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.