Capt.
Mike
Kelly
Erskine Seminary Alumnus Awarded Bronze Star
A graduate of Erskine Theological Seminary has been awarded the Bronze Star for his military service in the Middle East.
Mike Kelly, who graduated from the seminary in May 2000, spent six months in Kuwait as chaplain for the 2-1 Air Defense Artillery Battalion.
“It still does not seem real to me and for the life of me I cannot figure out how I received this award over so many other deserving people,” he said. “I don’t mean that as false humility. The guys that did the real work crossed over into Iraq and fought the war firsthand.”
The Bronze Star is awarded to those who distinguish themselves by heroic or meritorious achievement or service while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States, while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force, or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party.
“My award was for meritorious service so I feel somewhat better about that,” Mike said. “Still, there are so many that did so much more.”
Kelly’s unit deployed to Kuwait on the day before Thanksgiving in 2002 and he returned on May 28, his wife Janet’s birthday.
“Mike was in the National Guard and had a dream of being an Army chaplain and when he went to Erskine, he became a chaplain candidate with the Guard,” Janet said. “After Sept. 11, all the chaplains in the South Carolina Guard pretty much came out saying that if they were needed, they would go. Since the Army was so short of chaplains, Mike took it a bit further to pursue it more and was called up by the Army in April 2002.”
He was assigned to Fort Bliss, Texas, where the Kellys moved in June 2002.
“We both knew that coming active duty after Sept. 11 was a surefire guarantee for (Mike) to be deployed, but we prayed, knew that was what the Lord was leading us to do and had complete peace about it,” Janet said.
The Kellys married in 1995. At that time, Mike was a Southern Baptist minister who was working on his master’s degree. Janet was raised in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church and in 1996, the Kellys moved to Janet’s hometown, Columbia, and Mike joined Janet’s church, Centennial ARP.
Shortly thereafter, Mike started talking to Centennial pastor David Setzer about becoming an ARP minister and he started at Erskine in the fall of 1997.
Mike calls Erskine “one of the best educational experiences” of his life.
He was accepted twice at Columbia International, “but each time I did not attend for reasons I cannot quite explain.”
Mike says when he realized the Lord was leading him to further education, Janet mentioned Erskine to him.
“We drove up to Due West one day, had a meeting with Dr. (Randy) Ruble and the rest is history,” Mike says. “The number one thing I can say about my educational experience at Erskine is I have used everything I learned there in some form. The private conversations about ministry with my professors and their classroom instruction has benefited me in every aspect of my ministry.”
After graduating from Erskine, Mike became pastor of a small ARP church in Sumter.
“He really wanted to go on active duty after graduation, but the Army wouldn’t take him (since he was in the) Guard,” Janet said. “I felt for him but we knew he was called to Sumter. After Sept. 11, we began praying about whether this was how the Lord would allow his dream to be fulfilled.”
She said she was scared, but “I also know Mike and I know his heart and his love for soldiers and the military and I knew that if this was what the Lord was doing, I didn’t want to stand in the way.”
When Mike was chosen for active duty, Janet said she was excited for her husband, but “a bit apprehensive, too.”
The Kellys were surprised that the Army chose to move them 1,800 miles away from home, to Fort Bliss, Texas, “but we tried to look at it as an adventure. Plus, we kept our eyes on the Lord and knew he had come ahead of us and prepared the way.”
Mike was “instantly loved and trusted” by the soldiers in his unit and his command, Janet said, but shortly after they were settled, the rumors started about pending deployment.
“We knew it was a matter of time before they were called up,” Janet said. “We have a son who was two-and-a-half at the time. I was more worried about Wyatt and how he would do, but we talked openly and honestly with him.”
Janet said she did a lot of praying, but she was proud of the work her husband was doing and the Kellys believed in what America was fighting for.
“I pretty much made the choice that I would make it,” Janet said.
Mike said he and his wife knew God would be in control of the situation, no matter what the circumstances were.
Janet remembers vividly dropping Mike off in a parking lot at 2 a.m. “on a very cold night” for his departure.
“That was pretty much it for several days,” she said. “I didn’t hear from Mike for about a week. That was hard.”
“I was stationed at Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait before the war began and e-mail was available to me and one 15-minute phone call a week so in that regard we were extremely blessed,” Mike said. “We communicated weekly. When the war began, I was transferred to Arifjan Military Base and traveled with the supply guys throughout Kuwait so I could visit my troops. These guys also had good communications, so I was able to stay in touch with Janet throughout the war.”
The communication with Janet was important to Mike.
“As a chaplain, I really did not have anyone to talk to myself, so talking to her by phone or e-mail was my sanity,” he said.
That was especially true when one of Mike’s friends, 1st Sgt. Robert Downy, was killed.
“Robert was a mechanic by trade that had climbed the rank ladder to hold the position of master sergeant in our battalion,” Mike said. “When I left to go live with the maintenance guys, Robert was transferred to the 507th Maintenance Company. I missed him for several days in my travels so I began to ask where he was. I found out one morning that he was the first sergeant of the 507th and I learned that evening that he had been killed.
“I had to just go somewhere and cry by myself and I still do whenever the subject is brought up for too long,” he said. “That loss will always be with me and I do not think I shall ever visit a national cemetery and take one stone marker for granted ever again. It is personal for me now and I hope all of America will make an effort never to forget those who have fallen for our freedom.”
Mike’s journey to Kuwait has changed his perspective, particularly as it relates to his current duty station at Fort Bliss.
“My first time here I hated the place,” he said. “‘Right in the middle of nowhere,’ I said to myself. When the war came, I went to Kuwait and saw a real desert up close. Upon returning to the U.S.A. and El Paso, I feel it is now the most plush green place I have seen. I have now been to the desert and El Paso is not it.”
Mike said it was faith in the Lord that saw him through the tour of duty in Kuwait.
“The Lord and I had several conversations each day,” he said.
The Kellys experienced a happy reunion when Mike’s assignment was completed.
“I found out three days before they came home they were coming and it looked like it would be my birthday, which was great,” Janet said. “I ordered a sign that was red, white and blue that read, ‘Welcome Home Daddy, We Love You!’ and Wyatt made a sign and things like that.”
Mike flew into the airfield about 10:30 p.m. and had a brief reunion with his family.
“I think I cried like a baby when I saw Mike and it was so good to see him in person,” Janet said. “I don’t think I can really describe all the feelings you have when you are separated from your best friend and love and then to be able to see and hold each other again.”
Mike had some downtime after returning to the states and the Kellys spent that time being a family again.
