This is a memorial post for my Mom’s friend Bobby Kelley from Bellaire, Ohio who died in Vietnam on July 22, 1970.
I write this post after a long discussion with my mother about graveyards and how everyone had life experiences, loved and were loved, but how everyone will be forgotten after just a few generations. Nobody wants to be forgotten, including me. So I keep this journal and at times do memorial posts for my friends and family. This is the first time I’m doing one for someone I never met.
From the discussion with my Mom, I learned that Bobby’s body came back bullet riddled, yet the army stated the cause of death as from an explosive device such as a landmine or grenade. It certainly didn’t look like he had wounds due to an explosive device at all, but had plenty of bullet holes. There was no further information from the Army and so family and friends concluded the Army was being untruthful as the stated cause of death showed no evidence on the actual body.
As we have seen over the past few decades the Army and politicians lie – A LOT! They have never been honest about friendly fire statistics and this continues to this day. And so after the discussion with my mom I thought that her friend Bobby would probably want the world to know that he did not die from a hostile explosion, but rather from friendly fire. This is the conclusion as the body showed no damage from an explosion, the Army gave no further information and the Army is also highly untruthful in regards to the high amount of friendly fire deaths.
And so, I write this memorial post for him so he can have his place on the internet where the world can see that his family and friends did not buy the official account and I hope it will give him peace wherever he may be.
National Archives Record: https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=197&mtch=1&cat=all&tf=F&q=kelley+george+robert&bc=&sort=48%20desc&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=33774
Veteran’s Memorial Wall: http://thewall-usa.com/info.asp?recid=27512
