Paul M. Kelly killed in helicopter crash

A Stafford County brother, friend, father and husband, Col. Paul Kelly, was killed in Iraq when an Army helicopter was apparently shot down Saturday in Iraq.

Col. Paul Kelly and 11 other soldiers were killed in the crash.

The 45-year-old helicopter pilot was based in Baghdad to command the Army National Guard liaison team that coordinates site visits and monitors soldiers' needs, according to Kelly's friend, Brian West of Falls Church.

Kelly was on his way back to Baghdad after site visits when the helicopter went down, West said. Kelly was not piloting the helicopter. And although the investigation is still under way, evidence indicates it was shot down by insurgents.

Kelly deployed in August and was due home in March, West said.

Prior to the deployment, Kelly had worked in Arlington as chief of the Aviation and Safety Division at the National Guard Bureau.

Kelly lived in Virginia for nearly 15 years at various posts and met his wife, Maria, while in the area, his brother, Patrick Kelly, said.

The couple would have celebrated their 10th anniversary in July.

West said neighbors were forming a support group for the family to help with meals, cleaning and transportation.

"People here are just banding together to support his wife," he said.

Maria Kelly, a former Air Force nurse, is a teacher's aid and nurse at St. William of York Catholic School, and the couple was active in the parish community, Sister Lisa Lorenz said.

"This man was truly a hero," she said. "He was a good man."

The couple's two children, 8-year-old Paul David and 5-year-old J.J., both attend the school.

Kelly once brought a helicopter to the school for students to see and planned to bring another one in the spring, Lorenz said.

"He was the most wonderful man who ever lived," she said. "He will sorely be missed."

The school is organizing a college fund for the Kelly children, she said.

Kelly was born in Germany to a Vietnam veteran and an Irish mother. He has three brothers and two sisters.

His father retired in the Dayton, Ohio, area, where Kelly went to high school and was a four-year letterman on the wrestling team, Patrick Kelly said.

"Growing up, he was my idol," he said of his brother, who was six years older. "He was, without a doubt, the type of person one would look to not only for advice but for friendship."

At the University of Dayton, Kelly was in ROTC and went into the Army after graduation in 1984. He later went to flight school at Fort Rucker, Ala.

West and Kelly met while working in the Aviation and Safety Division at the National Guard Bureau in Arlington and have been friends for 11 years.

"I knew him as a brother, as a friend. He was a tremendous person," West said. "There's just so much to tell."

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