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In Memoriam |
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In Memoriam |
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LCpl. Bryan Kelly, U.S.M.C (KIA)
Family, town share grief over loss of Bryan Kelly
By DYLAN DARLING
H&N Staff Writer
Yellow firefighter boots and a well-worn helmet sat empty next to a photograph of Marine Lance Cpl. Bryan Kelly as Klamath Falls said goodbye Wednesday to a second Marine killed in the war in Iraq.
"Klamath Falls has been especially hard hit by this war," said Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who spoke at a public memorial service.
Two ceremonies were held to honor Kelly - a morning service for those close to the 21-year-old and an evening service for the public in his hometown.
Kelly, who was on his second tour of duty in Iraq, had wanted to return and be a volunteer firefighter. The boots and helmet were the ones he wore as a volunteer with Klamath County Fire District No. 4.
"I can't bring Bryan Kelly back to the warm and loving arms of his family ... but I promise this, your son will not be forgotten," Kulongoski said, looking down at Kelly's parents from a podium.
"As his father said, 'You couldn't ask for a better son,' " Kulongoski said.
A 2001 Klamath Union High School graduate, Kelly was killed in action July 16 by a roadside bomb in Iraq's Al Anbar Province. He was manning the machine-gun turret of a Humvee when a manufactured explosive device went off, said Marine Sgt. P.V. Bland at the public service.
Lance Cpl. Gary Van Leuven, a 2002 graduate of Mazama High School, was killed in combat in April. Kelly and Van Leuven are among seven Marines from Oregon to die in Iraq. Kulongoski, a Marine veteran, has gone to services for all seven and flew from the Democratic National Convention in Boston to attend the Klamath Falls ceremony.
Kelly had joined after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, feeling he needed to serve his country.
"That is what he felt he had to do," said Kelly's best friend, Capt. Mark Shae of Klamath County Fire District No. 4.
The two had shared a dream of being firefighters together since they met when Shea was 7. They would dress up in rain jackets and grab a garden hose. The picnic table was their fire engine, and shrubs were the fires they were trying to put out.
"Our parents wondered why the trees and bushes grew so well - but if you put as much water as we did on anything, it would grow," Shae said.
Kelly's first big move from his parents' house was down the block to Shae's house so the two could get to fire calls together quicker. He later left to go fight in Iraq.
After Shae spoke at the public service, he had the firefighters and law enforcement officials turn up their radios to hear dispatch give a final call for Bryan Kelly. The radios squelched and beeped the alarm warning of a fire before the dispatcher gave a message honoring Kelly. She ended with, "Thanks for serving our country."
Wednesday morning, fire trucks, an ambulance and police squad cars mixed in with the sedans, SUVs and pickup trucks parked around the memorial service for friends and family at a Klamath Falls cemetery.
In the crowd of more than 100 were family members and friends, Marines, firefighters, police officers and sheriff's deputies - all people Kelly had touched in his 21 years, including his two older brothers, David and Sean, and parents, Patrick and Joani.
"He had a tenacious desire to succeed," said Mountain Allbritton, the girlfriend of David Kelly. Allbritton spoke at the private service on behalf of the family.
Six of Kelly's Marine brothers carried his flag-draped casket from a white hearse to a stand in front of the Acacia Veterans Memorial, a tribute Eternal Hills has for fallen veterans, this morning.
At the evening public service, almost 1,000 people were joined by the governor.
Somber patriotic songs played over public address system before and after the memorial service.
Pastor Bill Swartz of Suburban Heights Baptist Church, where the Kellys attend, led both services.
He said he would often get calls from Kelly in Iraq on Sundays, interrupting his prayers and preparations for church, but it was a welcome interruption. Kelly would tell Swartz he could feel the power of his prayers.
"He said, 'My heart belongs to God, everything else belongs to the Marine Corps,' " Swartz said.
He said Kelly often wore a smile that made him nothing but teeth and ears.
"He was truly a person who could light up people around him," he said.
That smile was something he carried even in the rough military fatigues of a Marine.
"Everyone here today would know what kind of person Bryan was," said 1st Lt. Casey Farrell, who was Kelly's platoon commander for seven months during his first tour of duty.
Farrell, who is from Chicago, said Marines eat, sleep and fight together and have a camaraderie like no other.
During their tour, Farrell said the Marines in his platoon called a bombed-out concrete building home. His cot was toe-to-toe with Kelly's.
When they had down time, Kelly would lie on his cot with his shirt off to beat the heat and his headphones on to drown out the sounds of war. He would look up at photos of friends and family he taped to the wall and shuffle through a stack of even more photos.
"He had sort of a grin," Farrell said. "He knew there were people back home supporting him and waiting for him."
Some of his favorite photos were ones of Kate Huntsman, a Klamath Falls girl he met at a skating rink when he was 11 and had dated occasionally since.
"He said, 'Sir, I think I'm going to ask this girl to marry me,' " Farrell said.
Between his two tours, he did just that. He proposed the day after Thanksgiving and the couple were to be wed on Nov. 27.
Farrell said he and Bryan Kelly would also talk about home and had an ongoing debate about whose dad was tougher.
"Seeing Mr. Kelly here today, I think Bryan won," he said.
A retired Klamath County sheriff's detective and former Klamath Falls police trainer, Patrick Kelly now manages the Gull Station at South Sixth Street and Washburn Way.
Farrell ended his words with a tearful salute to his fallen friend.
Folded American flags were given to Joani Kelly and Huntsman after a gun salute and playing of taps. Kulongoski also gave Joani Kelly a flag at the public service.
Patrick Kelly stood and thanked the gathering at the end of the service as many filed past the casket of the young Marine.
Governor helped get Marine home
Gov. Ted Kulongoski helped fallen Klamath Falls Marine Lance Cpl. Bryan Kelly get home last week.
Sheriff Tim Evinger, who is a friend of the Kellys, got a call from members of the family Wednesday, July 21, who were trying to figure out the logistics of getting the young Marine's body back to Klamath Falls.
The U.S. Marine Corps can fly a fallen Marine to large commercial airports, but from there families need to figure out the arrangements, Evinger said. Thus, the Kellys were trying to arrange a flight from Sacramento, Reno or Portland.
"It was very important to the family to have Bryan fly into Klamath Falls, so he could be there when the (extended) family got there," he said.
Just after his talk with the Kellys, Evinger saw Kulongoski, who was in Klamath Falls last week. He told the governor of the predicament.
Two hours later, the governor called and said that he would take care of getting a flight.
Friday, an Oregon National Guard C-23 plane flew Kelly's body to Kingsley field, where firefighters, police officers and sheriff deputies stood at attention and a Marine honor guard took him off the plane.