Atque in Perpetuum, Frater, Ave Aque Vale
He died the day before the Marine Corps birthday.
A Marine officer killed Tuesday in Afghanistan was the son of Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly, well known on Capitol Hill as a former legislative aide to the commandant of the Marine Corps.
The Pentagon announced Wednesday morning that Kelly’s son, Lt. Robert M. Kelly, was killed in combat in Helmand province. Kelly enlisted in the Marine Corps in September 2003 and received his commission in December 2008; he was killed during his third combat deployment.
His brother is a Marine Corps captain and will be escorting his brother home. His dad has sent an incredibly poignant email to friends with details of Robert’s Arlington funeral and it’s very hard to read. Very hard. And so personal to their horrific loss on our behalf, that I won’t share any of it, but one thing. One gut-wrenching thing: the subject line. It simply says:
My Boy
Semper Fidelis, 1stLt. Kelly.
Thank you.
Military Thingies | tree hugging sister | 
November 14, 2010 6:29 pm
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Vale, LT Kelly. Rest in peace, Marine. May your family be comforted in this time of pain.
LtGen Kelly was with my battalion that night, and he talked about the casualty notification methods that the Marine Corps uses. He also talked of how proud he is of his two sons who are both in the Marines, one in Afghanistan as we spoke. I even talked with him personally that night. Later, he was told about his son.
I wonder, who does the casualty call for a LtGen? I’m guessing another General officer, probably the assistant commandant. Who knows. How do you keep going as the Division Commander when your son has been killed?
God Almighty, Skyler.
And I don’t know how you keep going, although I guess you do because that’s WHAT you do.
“My Boy”.
I have a “My Boy”. And almost every night, major dad and I see other “My Boys” names and pictures scroll across the screen on the NewsHour’s Honor Roll and it’s all I can do not to cry like a baby, being a Mom of a “My Boy”. A mom who is torn even more, because I wore a uniform, too.
But if I lost that boy?
Oh, my God, my world would collapse. Even though I know that boy is doing what’s right and honorable, and what WE did before him.
Jesus, it’s something.
Semper Fi.
Rest in peace and may we prove worthy of your sacrifice.
Sometimes things etch themselves into memmory. “My boy” is now one of them. God bless them all, and Semper Fi.
…et lux perpetuum donum, Domine…
My Boy
WHEW. I can not imagine.
The words can’t express. To the Family’s or to the “My Boy’s”
You are all my “Boy” and ” Girl”.