James Kelly Jr

Monday, May 15 2006 @ 07:23 AM MDT

Times Record -- RICHMOND — Dale James Kelly Jr. was the kind of guy who found himself in a desert and planned a barbecue.

That's but one memory held by his grieving wife, Nancy Kelly, who learned Saturday that her husband had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq.

The 48-year-old staff sergeant in the Maine Army National Guard had it all figured out, she said. First, he would build a deck to connect to his barracks — a shipping container with air conditioners attached — and then order Omaha Steaks over the Internet and have them shipped to southern Iraq.

He and fellow members of the 3-172 Mountain Infantry Unit of the Maine Army National Guard would then feast as if they were back home.

But before that wish could become reality, Kelly died on Saturday in Iraq from a roadside bomb that hit the truck in which he was riding. Another Maine National Guardsman, Staff Sgt. David Veverka 25, of Jamestown, Pa., also died from the explosion. Spc. Christopher Fraser, 19, of Windsor, was injured in the blast and is hospitalized in Germany.

Fraser's injuries are not life-threatening, said Gov. John Baldacci, who spoke to the injured soldier's mother and members of the victims' families.

Other than an attack by a suicide bomber in Mosul in December 2004, the two deaths were the worst single incident for a Maine National Guard unit in Iraq. The Mosul attack killed two Maine soldiers and injured another 13 from the Maine National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion.

"These tragedies, though raw and painful, remind us of the everyday sacrifices made by the men and women who serve overseas, as well as the family members left behind," Baldacci said.

The Department of Defense and the Maine National Guard didn't disclose any details about the attack. The unit was deployed from Brewer in January to provide security operations for convoys in Iraq.

Kelly's wife, Nancy, said that two gun trucks rode in front, two others in the rear and supply trucks were sandwiched in between. They drove 45 miles an hour, with no stopping.

Nancy Kelly talked about her husband Monday afternoon in her back yard in Richmond, surrounded by family and friends.

"He was everything a Christian man should be and more — a father, a husband, a soldier," she said.

Anyone who knew him wouldn't doubt that the barbecue would have happened: Nancy Kelly's second mailed package to her husband included a folding chair, a table for the deck and five pounds of "Jolly Rancher" candy to give to Iraqi children.

A life of service
Improving morale with a desert barbecue exemplified Kelly's unwavering commitment to help others. Three years ago, he decided to train to become a medic in the Maine Army National Guard and turned down a promotion in the process, asking that it be given to a medic in the same unit with more seniority.

He wanted to be an instrument of healing, his wife said.

While preparing for boot camp, he jogged with a backpack full of rocks. The drill instructor at Fort Sam Houston in Texas made fun of the soldiers in their 20s who could not keep up with the middle-aged Mainer.

When he became a medic, his Guard nickname, "Machine Gun" Kelly, changed to "Doc" Kelly, and he put the new skills to work. While on a trip to Jamaica with teens in the "Journey to Adulthood" program at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brunswick, Kelly helped barefoot Jamaican children who had a variety of injuries. He used money he had brought to buy souvenirs for medical supplies instead and gave them to the local priest.

His term in the National Guard was scheduled to run out next month and he planned to re-enlist, his wife said.

Dale and Nancy Kelly celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary last December, shortly before he shipped out for his first deployment in Iraq.

When Kelly departed for Iraq, he left behind three children and three grandchildren. The grandchildren called him "Bumpa" because his 2-year-old granddaughter Elizabeth Trainor couldn't say "Grandpa."

The Kellys met in Rhode Island before moving to Maine. She was a full-time telecommunications specialist in the Guard and he, a native of Cranston, R.I., was a machine gunner.

His objective abroad with members of the Maine National Guard was different. "My mission is to bring the guys home whole," he said.

A 'perfect neighbor'
At the Richmond Town Office on Monday, Town Clerk Judy Savage said that Kelly was the kind of person you were glad to see come through the door.

"He was always joking, always seemed happy. Especially when he came in to register his motorcycle. He loved his motorcycle," she said.

Pleasant Street neighbor John "Jay" Robbins knew Kelly through their volunteer work with the Boy Scouts. Robbins described him as the first to volunteer for a task, a man who would get it done right.

"He was a real can-do type guy," Robbins said.

His death is a tremendous loss to the neighborhood and the community, Robbins added.

"In many ways he was the perfect neighbor. He was there if you needed him and not there if you didn't want him," he said.

Ongoing mission
Kelly and his fellow Guardsmen were stationed outside the city of An Nasiriyah, responsible for force protection and convoys. Supplies came in from Kuwait and the members of the 3/172nd moved them throughout the country on trips that lasted days. Kelly was riding in the lead truck at the time of the attack, serving as a medic.

"So they still have 10 months left in the mission and they're scared. This wasn't supposed to happen," Nancy Kelly said of the remaining members of her husband's unit.

Noting that the unit's motto is "Ascend to victory," Nancy Kelly believes they will persevere.

Her husband did. Dale Kelly used his 17 years of sobriety to help other people in their struggles with substance abuse.

Julie Trainor said her father said that he missed the green of springtime most while in Iraq. The landscape of Iraq was flat as a pool table, unlike the hills of Richmond, and based on the pictures Nancy Kelly showed Monday, the only greenery consisted of fringes of plant life on the roadside. Maybe that's where the deck and the steaks came in for Kelly.

Nor was he blind to the worries around him when he had been home, working at his job at Bath Iron Works.

As he worked in a number of different positions at the shipyard, he and every other employee heard about cutbacks and the potential for the shipyard to close. If Bath Iron Works closed, Kelly told his wife, he wanted to be the last person to turn out the lights.

BIW reacts
The flags at Bath Iron Works were at half staff this morning in honor of the man who many knew as someone who always thought of others first.

The workers, some of whom knew Kelly as their supervisor, learned of his death early Monday morning. Glenn Burroughs, a Local S-6 shop steward for the maintenance department, received a 6:30 a.m. call from a craft administrator.

Burroughs knew Kelly as a good supervisor who looked out for his crew and always had their best interests in mind.

"That's something a good supervisor should do," said Burroughs. "He was very talkative and sometimes very loose, but when it came to his job he had a serious side."

Jim Favreau, BIW's director of facilities, was Kelly's boss and has known him for the full 14 years he was at the shipyard.

For many years, Kelly was a process engineer who looked for ways to increase efficiency in the construction process and who helped integrate the use of new welding technology. Most recently, Kelly led a crew of 14 men who are responsible for installing and taking down temporary lighting and electrical service — one of the most challenging supervisory jobs at the shipyard, said Favreau.

"When Dale took over, the first thing he did was sit down with his crew and asked for their opinions," said Favreau. "He just had a way of being very even-keeled when it came to emotions. Dale was a very strong spirit."

In May 2004, when Favreau learned of a need for plasma-cutting torches to beef up the armor on Humvees in Iraq, he tasked Kelly with the project.

"Dale was the first person I called," said Favreau. "In less than 24 hours, he organized the whole thing, working with multiple divisions."

With that, the torches were off to Mosul, Iraq, for use by the 133rd Engineer Battalion.

One of 18 BIW employees currently in Iraq, Kelly was used to fielding questions about his military service and whether he was nervous about going to Iraq.

"When Dale was preparing for that deployment he clearly was confident that he had the training he needed. He never showed that there was any fear whatsoever," said Favreau. "He knew he had a place to come back to. We're a small facilities division and losing Dale is a devastating thing for us."

Favreau said his division and the company as a whole look forward to somehow memorializing Kelly, but for now is keeping its distance to give the Kelly family space to grieve.

Now that he's gone, said Burroughs, all that's left to do is go back to work, just as the fallen soldier and shipbuilder would have wanted.

"When we lose one of our own, it's a very sad moment," he said. "On the other hand, we're building ships for the U.S. Navy to do the work that needs to be done. We deal with it by building the best destroyers in the world."

Times Record -- RICHMOND - Despite the bucolic setting, it was a place where Nancy Kelly — whose husband, Maine Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Dale Kelly Jr., was killed in Iraq on Saturday — never wanted to be. But she faced the situation with grace, strength and concern for others.

During a press conference at her Pleasant Street home on Tuesday afternoon, Kelly talked about her husband's death in Iraq as chickadees chirped and a mourning dove cooed in the background.

Dale James Kelly Jr., 48, died Saturday when a roadside bomb went off while he was in a gun truck on convoy duty. His body is scheduled to arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware at 2 p.m. today. Nancy Kelly said she plans to be there. No funeral date has been set.

"My mission right now is to get through 'Taps,'" she said.

The couple last talked a week ago, while she was at work. In that conversation, Dale Kelly told his wife, "The whole country smells like death."

Yet he felt that his service was to benefit the Iraqi people, she added.

Between expressions of grief about her family's personal loss, she told of her determination that her husband's unit — and all military and support personnel in Iraq — must have the backing of Maine people.

"We need to support them," she said. "They are under fire at a time when we thought it was safe."

The National Guard wove together different aspects of the couple's lives. They met while serving in the Rhode Island National Guard. He joined the Maine Army National Guard after they moved to the state from Rhode Island. He served as a medic in the 3-172 Mountain Infantry Unit.

Despite her own grief, Nancy Kelly used Tuesday's press conference to remind Mainers that her husband's unit remains in harm's way.

Another member of the unit, Sgt. David Veverka, 25, of Jamestown, Pa., also died in the attack that claimed Dale Kelly's life. Spc. Christopher Fraser, 19, of Windsor, was injured.

They were stationed outside the city of An Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, which Nancy Kelly said was a quieter part of the country. But their work for force protection and convoys took them elsewhere.

Nancy talked about her husband near a framed collage of family photographs that commemorated their 25th wedding anniversary. They celebrated it and renewed their wedding vows before he left for Iraq in December. Photos of the celebration show Dale Kelly in his Army uniform.

Nancy Kelly wanted to surprise her husband, an avid motorcyclist, by getting her license to drive a motorcycle before his return from Iraq. Then they could ride as a couple.

"Our goal was to grow old together," she said.

Their lives were so intertwined that since she learned of his death, everything has reminded her of him.

"My husband's dead. My life as I know it is gone," she said.

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