May 2021 Veteran of the Month
Mike Kelly was born in New York City.
The son of Irish immigrants, his Father was a motorman for the NYC subway system. At 3-year-old, they moved to Yonkers, NY. He later attended grammar-school in the Bronx, high school at Fordham Prep, and graduated from Fordham College in 1971 with a degree in English Literature.
After college, he worked in administration at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan’s upper-east-side. He then attended Georgetown Law, graduating with a J.D. degree in 1977. Upon passing the New York Bar exam, he was accepted into the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps and commissioned as a 1/LT in 1978. His initial assignment was at FT. Lee, VA, for entry training. Then on to basic judge-advocate training at the Army JAG School in Charlottesville, VA. Upon graduation, Mike was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized), Ft. Stewart, GA, to work as a brigade trial counsel and then as chief of legal assistance. Mike was next assigned to U.S. Army Legal Services Agency in Falls Church, VA, as an appellate defense counsel and then as branch chief over 5 JAG appellate counsel. There he represented soldiers in courts-martial-conviction appeals. Next, Mike served on the legal staff at HQS, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, Falls Church, VA.
Mike then attended the Army JAG School’s 11-month Graduate Class for JAG-related legal studies. After graduation, he was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division (Forward) in Goppingen, Germany, as chief of military justice. He next served at the 7th Infantry Division (Light), Ft Ord, CA, as an Army Trial Defense Service (TDS) senior defense counsel, supervising 5 other TDS JAG officers. In this period Mike deployed to Panama during Operation Just Cause as senior defense counsel for the division’s deployed units. Next, Mike served as legal advisor to the Field Investigative Unit, Criminal Investigation Command, and then as command judge advocate at U.S. Army Central Command – Saudi Arabia, a small command maintaining an Army presence in Saudi Arabia and providing Patriot missile air-defense for the air base in Dhahran. Mike was at his living quarters at Khobar Towers at the time of the bombing that killed 19 U.S. airmen in July 1996. Mike’s final Army assignment was as a staff attorney with the National Guard Bureau. Mike retired as a major, with 20 years’ service in September 1998, having earned 8 Meritorious Service medals.
Searching for a “good fit” in civilian work in the D.C. area, Mike first worked on legal projects assigned by a temporary-legal-services agency; he then worked as a labor law attorney; and next tried teaching 7th and 8th grade History, Geography, and English at a D.C. inner-city Catholic school. Ultimately, he settled into 15 years as an administrative appeals officer at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. There he mostly adjudicated appeals of denied petitions for temporary workers from outside the United States. Mike retired from federal civil service in March 2019.
Mike’s wife, Debbie, took the initiative in searching for a location for the Kellys’ retirement years. Mike suggested considering Tennessee and a visit to Tellico Village. Debbie was sold on the Village within the couple’s first few hours there. They moved to the Village in October 2019 and love it.
Mike and Debbie have two sons: one, an Army veteran, lives in Florida; the younger son is a Marine Corps helicopter pilot and aviation tactics instructor.
AWE hospitality has generously donated a $25 gift certificate to Mike, with heartfelt appreciation for his service to our Country!
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