HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 822 Offered January 29, 2007 Celebrating the life of Colonel Paul M. Kelly. ---------- Patron-- Cole ----------

WHEREAS, Colonel Paul M. Kelly of Stafford, a Virginia Army Guardsman supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom, was killed in the line of duty on January 20, 2007; and

WHEREAS, Colonel Kelly was commissioned as an officer through the ROTC program at the University of Dayton in 1982 and served in many staff and leadership positions in the National Guard in Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia, where he honed his skills as an accomplished helicopter pilot; and

WHEREAS, in 1996, Colonel Kelly was assigned to the National Guard Bureau as an aviation operations officer and later became aviation operations and training section chief; and

WHEREAS, Colonel Kelly served as an exemplary Army staff officer assigned to the Pentagon in the Aviation Division, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans; and

WHEREAS, an outstanding leader with vast experience, Colonel Kelly was selected to command the Virginia Army National Guard 2nd Battalion, 224th Aviation Regiment (Assault Helicopter) for two years from 2001–2003 with a rotation as the task force commander of Stabilization Force–10 in Bosnia-Herzegovina; and

WHEREAS, Colonel Kelly served as chief of the Aviation and Safety Division, Army National Guard, National Guard Bureau, before deploying to support Operation Iraqi Freedom as chief of Reserve Component Division, MultiNational Corps–Iraq; and

WHEREAS, in addition to his numerous military qualifications and certifications, Colonel Kelly earned master's degrees from both Catholic University and National Defense University; and

WHEREAS, Colonel Kelly and a fellow Virginian, Staff Sergeant Darryl D. Booker of Midlothian, were among 12 soldiers killed when their Black Hawk helicopter went down northeast of Baghdad on January 20, 2007; and

WHEREAS, Colonel Kelly will be fondly remembered as an exceptional officer, scholar, husband, and father and greatly missed by his wife Maria and his two children, Paul David and John Joseph, of Stafford, and numerous other family members, friends, and compatriots in the National Guard; and

WHEREAS, Colonel Kelly's death is a reminder of the hazards faced daily by the thousands of brave Americans who serve in our armed forces overseas and whose devotion to duty places them in harm's way; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby note with great sadness the loss of a courageous and patriotic Virginian, Colonel Paul M. Kelly; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Colonel Paul M. Kelly as an expression of the high regard in which his memory is held by the members of the General Assembly and the citizens of Virginia.