Officer’s Marine Pride as Deep as Scorn for Hussein
As the Marine Corps prepared for possible war with Iraq, Col. John F. Kelly, now in his 32nd year in the corps, was promoted to brigadier general.
But Kelly, 53, was determined not to put the silver star on his collar until combat troops crossed “the line of departure” into Iraq. “For an old infantry guy like me, that seemed fitting,” said Kelly, with a smile.
And so on the second day of the offensive to topple Saddam Hussein, Kelly was promoted -- while standing on Iraqi soil -- by his boss, Major Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division.
Since then, Kelly has emerged in some ways as the public face of the Marine portion of the U.S. and British offensive. He has become the principal spokesman for the division, briefing reporters traveling with the troops, tutoring the journalists in the ways of war and the corps, and answering innumerable questions.
Through it all he has repeated two themes: that Hussein’s regime is morally and politically corrupt, and that there is no doubt the Marine Corps will play a major role in liberating the Iraqi people.
His disdain for Hussein is withering. He refers to the dictator’s loyalists as “Gestapo,” “death squads,” “gangsters” and “bullies.” He is convinced that Hussein will use chemical weapons. “No question about it,” Kelly said calmly, “he’s going to fire it. Whether he hits anything is another matter.”
Tall and slightly stooped, Kelly comes from a working-class Boston background. He signed up in 1970 -- “to get away from some very mean streets in our neighborhood” -- and was commissioned in 1976 after graduating from the University of Massachusetts.
Asked about the greatest advantages in his life, he answered, “Being born into the family I was” -- his father was a postman -- “and the Christian Brothers.” Even now, Kelly remembers the sternness of one Brother Daniel, including the time he caught Kelly and his friends sneaking into a Boston Red Sox game.
Kelly’s resume has a mix of field assignments and executive positions.
Along with commanding front-line troops, he has headed the offensive-tactics section of the Marine Corps training school at Quantico, Va.
He has served as an infantry commander, been a rifle and weapons commander, and attended the National War College and the Army’s Infantry Officers Advanced Course at Ft. Benning, Ga.
His demeanor can be that of a university history professor. He peppers his conversation with references to Mao, Churchill and Carl von Clausewitz, the noted Prussian military strategist. And Marine Corps history -- its heroes and its battles -- is never far from Kelly’s mind.
Part of his polish in dealing with the media may have grown out of working from 1995 to 1999 as the commandant’s liaison to the House of Representatives.
When Kelly can’t answer a question, he turns it away with a joke. Asked by reporters whether the Marine Corps wants to get to Baghdad before the Army, he laughed and said, “Sorry, I’m not going to bite on that one.”
In describing the two military services, he called the U.S. Army “the best army in the world.” The Marine Corps, he said, “is the best fighting force in the world.”