Showing posts with label State Trooper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label State Trooper. Show all posts

Sunday, June 3, 2018

Truck driver Iraq veteran saved State Trooper

Iraq War vet, now a trucker, puts suspect in chokehold to save trooper from being shot
USA Today
Joel Shannon
June 2, 2018
“I did two tours in Iraq, and I never had to put a choke hold on anyone. That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever done."

The Wyoming Highway Patrol is praising an Iraq War veteran for his role in apprehending a suspect and helping a trooper who was in danger of being shot.
Trucker Darren Phillips of Taylorsville, Utah, pulled over after seeing an altercation between a trooper and a suspect Thursday near Green River, Wyoming, about 140 miles northeast of Salt Lake City.

“I put my brakes on, and I jump out. And by this time, the trooper is on his back and the guy is on top of him," Phillips told KSL-TV, Salt Lake City. "The trooper saw me running over and as soon as I got up to him, he says, ‘He’s going for my gun.' "

Phillips put the suspect in a chokehold. A Facebook post from the TV station quotes Phillips: It was the "craziest thing" he's ever done despite serving two tours in Iraq.

Phillips said his training in the Marines and Army National Guard helped him subdue the man and pull him off the trooper.
read more here

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Truckers lined up to save a life!

Truck drivers help stop a man from committing suicide
ABC News 9
By Matthew Witkos, WJRT
Apr 25, 2018
Genesee County (WJRT) -- The powerful images have been making the rounds on social media Tuesday.

Michigan state troopers out of metro Detroit say they've done this before. Several truck drivers say they've never seen or heard of this before. But without a moment of hesitation, they would do this if called up for action.

13 semi-trucks lined up underneath a metro Detroit overpass above I-696.

State troopers put them there to shorten a fall of one man attempting suicide early Tuesday morning.

These truck drivers are always on a tight schedule and are often pulling long hours to make their stops.
read more here

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

National Guardsman Dead After Standoff with State Trooper

Man with knife killed by Washington state trooper identified

KOMO News

Authorities have identified a man fatally shot by a Washington State Patrol trooper Saturday along Interstate 5 who allegedly had called 911 and requested "suicide by cop" before threatening the officer with a knife. (Photo: KOMO News)
LACEY, Wash. (AP) - Authorities have identified a man fatally shot by a Washington State Patrol trooper Saturday along Interstate 5 who allegedly had called 911 and requested "suicide by cop" before threatening the officer with a knife.
The Olympian reports 22-year-old National Guard reservist Michael Rude of Kent was shot by a trooper on the freeway in Lacey.
Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said Monday that an autopsy shows Rude died of gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen with internal bleeding.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Massachusetts State Trooper Killed In Crash Was Also a Marine Veteran

State trooper, Marine vet killed in crash during traffic stop, driver charged 
Associated Press 
March 17, 2016
Clardy joined the state police in 2005. He was a veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He leaves behind a wife and six children.
(Paul Kapteyn/Worcester Telegram & Gazette via AP)
A Massachusetts State Police trooper who was injured in a car crash on the Massachusetts Turnpike has died.

Forty-four-year-old Thomas Clardy died Wednesday.

Police say Clardy had stopped a car for a traffic violation when his cruiser was hit by another vehicle around noon in Charlton.

read more here

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Marine Amputee Iraq-Afghanistan Veteran Now Georgia State Trooper

Macon Marine overcomes amputation, becomes state trooper
13WMAZ
Lorra Lynch jones
February 2, 2015
Last summer, Smith passed every physical agility test required of all troopers in the Georgia State Patrol.

Mark Smith, a Marine from Macon, stepped on a bomb trudging through his second deployment to Iraq.

It knocked him off his feet and off the battlefield, but not for good.

He explained why, despite losing his leg, he fought back. Smith was determined to live his life on his own terms.

Years after his injury, sitting in his Warner Robins home, Mark Smith said he doesn't go a day without remembering October 13, 2006.

Looking at his prosthetic leg, he said he feels "phantom pain," in the foot that's no longer there.

He said, "It'll feel like I'm getting blown up again."

In 2006, Smith and a band of Marines, 1st Battallion 6th Marines, sludged through Ramadi, Iraq's flooded streets. Smith said, "Just a lot of stagnant sewage type water."

They were on a mission to stop enemy sniper fire. Smith had been there before, but this time it would become a place he cannot forget.
Anger and blind determination propelled him through a year of rehab and to a decision his wife, Tabitha, questioned.

Smith wanted to stay in the Marine Corps.

Tabitha said, "It was like, 'You've sacrificed for your country. You've sacrificed. We can move on from this'."

Mark said no, even a desk job for the Marines wouldn't suffice. He wanted to rejoin the fight.

He said, "I couldn't see myself being happy doing anything else."

He got his way in 2011, deploying to Afghanistan with the 2nd Battallion, 8th Marines.
read more here

Saturday, August 2, 2014

VA Caseworker and Police Save PTSD Veteran From Suicide

Officers in St. Ignace save veteran's life
Up North Live
by Nathan Lehota
Posted: 08.01.2014
A local veteran says local police saved his life while he was having a PTSD attack.

ST. IGNACE -- A Northern Michigan veteran is crediting the St. Ignace Police Department for saving his life while he was having a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder attack.

Retired Sergeant First Class Larry McQuiston's Veteran Affairs case worker called the police because McQuiston was about to commit suicide Thursday night.

McQuiston said the thoughts of taking his own life came after some personal problems and his PTSD became to be too much for him to bear.

“Being alone is one of the scariest things for a soldier,” said McQuiston. “Being alone is when my PTSD kicks in. It's not like I'm here; it's like I'm in Iraq.”

St. Ignace Police Officer Merlin Doren, Michigan State Trooper Marie Nelson and Sault Tribe Police Officer Brian Adams went to McQuiston's home, talked to him and helped him to a healthcare facility to get the treatment he needed.
read more here

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Vietnam vet, retired state trooper collapses, dies while fighting wildfire

Vietnam vet, retired state trooper collapses, dies while fighting wildfire
13 FOX News
BY SKIGGINS78
JULY 21, 2014

CARLTON, Wash. – The massive Carlton Complex Fire has destroyed between 150 and 200 homes, and the wildfire is showing no signs of stopping.

The fire claimed it’s first victim over the weekend — 67-year-old Robert Koczewski died while trying to keep the flames from destroying his home.

Robert and his wife watched the valley go up in flames and they’d seen it happen before, so they grabbed some water hoses and hoped for the best.

But this time Robert couldn’t withstand the physical demands; he collapsed and died of an apparent stroke while protecting his home.

After spending 26 years in the Marine Corps, and more than a decade with the Washington State Patrol, Robert and his wife retired to central Washington.
read more here

Friday, May 2, 2014

2 Alaska State Troopers Killed in Line of Duty

Officers from 'Alaska State Troopers' killed
CNN
By Michael Pearson and Ed Payne
May 2, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Both Alaska troopers killed Thursday had appeared on National Geographic show
Sgt. Patrick Johnson and Trooper Gabriel Rich died in Tanana
Details of what happened remain unclear

Tanana is an isolated village of 254 in Alaska's vast interior

(CNN) -- Two Alaska state troopers have died in a confrontation on the dirt streets of an isolated Alaska village.

A spokeswoman for the police agency identified the slain men as Sgt. Patrick Johnson and Trooper Gabriel Rich.

They died Thursday in Tanana, a remote village in Alaska's interior, 130 miles west of Fairbanks and 281 miles north of Anchorage.

Both had appeared on the National Geographic Channel program "Alaska State Troopers," the channel said Friday.

They worked out of the agency's Fairbanks rural service unit, according to the police agency.

Except to say that one person has been detained in the incident, officials have released few details about what happened.

CNN affiliate KTVF reported that the officers had headed to the village to follow up on a report from the previous night of someone brandishing a gun.

The Alaska Dispatch website reported that the troopers were shot after an unarmed village public safety officer called for backup after an altercation involving the botched sale of a $150 couch.

The news site said two people had been arrested, one after a lengthy standoff with heavily armed police.
read more here

Friday, August 2, 2013

State trooper’s suicide a red flag for Brockton area veterans

State trooper’s suicide a red flag for Brockton area veterans
Trooper Gregory Jasinskas served in Iraq and Afghanistan
Enterprise News
By Maria Papadopoulos
Staff Writer
Posted Aug 02, 2013

WEST BRIDGEWATER
In May 2011, then-Army Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Jasinskas wrote to The Enterprise while serving in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Jasinskas, then a state trooper on his third deployment overseas, praised Osama bin Laden’s assassination after learning about the event while watching the Armed Forces Network.

“(I’m) very happy, very relieved we finally got this mass murderer. I see him in the same light as Hitler,” Jasinskas said in an email to The Enterprise at the time.

Jasinskas returned from Afghanistan last year, and went back to work as a state trooper – a job he held for the past eight years, working out of the Milton barracks.

Monday afternoon, Jasinskas, an Abington native, committed suicide while under investigation for an alleged sexual assault while on duty.

His suicide has local veterans agents questioning what led Jasinskas, a married 40-year-old and decorated war veteran and state trooper, to take his own life.

“Oh my God. A kid that goes to two tours of duties and then ends up like this?” said Walter Thayer, West Bridgewater’s veterans agent and a retired police officer.

Jasinskas’ death highlights an ongoing issue within the military community – the staggering number of suicides among veterans.

According to a February study by the Department of Veterans Affairs, 22 veterans commit suicide every day nationwide.
read more here

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Ohio State Troopers answered another call to duty in combat

New Troopers Accustomed To Combat
Apr 05, 2013
By: Denise Alex
COLUMBUS, Ohio

The Ohio State Highway Patrol's 154th Academy Class graduated Friday after 22 weeks of intense paramilitary training.

Trooper Vincent Shirey said that 21 of the 63 troopers are members of the military. He recruits many troopers from the Camp LeJeune, a North Carolina military base.

"It seems that the military just makes sense with the highway patrol because of our strict military demeanor, our strict discipline. It's just a great fit," added Tpr. Shirey.
read more here and watch great video

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Fort Wainwright soldier seriously injured after convoy hit

Soldier Badly Hurt After Truck Crashes Into Salcha Military Convoy
By Chris Klint and The Associated Press
Channel 2 News
1:46 p.m. AKST, January 30, 2013

ANCHORAGE, Alaska
A Fort Wainwright soldier was severely injured Tuesday afternoon after Alaska State Troopers say a pickup truck struck several vehicles from a military convoy, including his Humvee, in a parking lot off the Richardson Highway near Salcha.

U.S. Army Alaska spokesperson Lt. Col. Bill Coppernoll identifies the injured man as Spc. Zachary New, 20, a member of Fort Wainwright’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division.

An AST dispatch Wednesday says the troopers responded shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday to the crash, in the Midway Lodge's parking lot at Mile 315 of the Richardson. The incident began as vehicles in the convoy, followed by 20-year-old driver Forrest Hermanns of Tok, were pulling into the lot.

“(Hermanns) was driving a 3/4 ton GMC pickup with a large trailer loaded with logs for sale,” troopers wrote. “Hermanns struck a (U.S.) Army Humvee that was slowing and preparing to turn into the parking lot. (His) vehicle continued into the parking lot, striking a soldier exiting a parked Humvee and then two parked (Stryker) armored vehicles.”
read more here

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Mental Health Crisis Leaves 13 Year Old Dead

Mental health advocates say I-10 traffic death shines light on state crisis
Tania Dall
Eyewitness News

METAIRIE, La. -- Mental health advocates are sounding the alarm after the tragic death of a 13-year-old boy Tuesday afternoon on I-10 in Metairie.

State police say the teen was being transported to a mental health facility 50 miles from home.

The deadly accident slowed traffic to a crawl along I-10 eastbound between Cleary Avenue and Causeway Boulevard. Emergency crews were on-scene responding to a frantic 911 call and attempted to save the young teen's life.

"A juvenile, a 13-year-old, was inside a van. He was being transported to southeast Louisiana for medical purposes. There was an altercation inside the van and they had to pull over to the shoulder," said Louisiana State Police Trooper Melissa Matey.

State police say 13-year-old Jeremiah Williams jumped out a Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals van that had stopped along the shoulder. Investigators say Williams crossed five busy lanes of I-10 and then attempted to cross back when he was hit by on-coming traffic.

"He then decided to come back towards the right shoulder so he again started to cross over those lanes of travel. He was struck by a tow truck in the center right lane. He was transported to the LSU center where he later died from his injuries," Matey said.
read more here

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Public memorial to be held for slain state trooper and Gulf War veteran

Public memorial to be held for slain state trooper
By Associated Press Published: Feb 26, 2012
SEATTLE (AP) - The Washington State Patrol on Saturday released details of an upcoming memorial service for a trooper killed during a traffic stop in Kitsap County, while the man's family remembered him as a committed law enforcement officer.

State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins said the service for Trooper Tony Radulescu is set for 1 p.m. Thursday at the ShoWare Center arena in Kent. He said the public is welcome to attend.

Also Saturday, the trooper's family spoke publicly for the first time since the slaying.

Radulescu's son Erick said during a news conference in Bremerton that his father was "everything" to him.

"He was a hero. He was the biggest role model in my life. He was really my best friend," the 22-year-old Army medic said. "At least he got to go doing what he loved to do."
The 44-year-old Tony Radulescu of Port Orchard was born in Romania, served in the Army during the Gulf War and was a trooper for 16 years. His ability to speak Romanian, Spanish and Korean made him an unofficial translator for the county's law enforcement agencies.
read more here

Sunday, January 24, 2010

PTSD caused by duty spawns action across the nation

PTSD caused by duty spawns action across the nation
by
Chaplain Kathie
Massachusetts has reason to be ashamed when there is even one remaining branch of public service denying PTSD and what it brings to those who serve as well as their families. Haven't they read the newspaper articles about National Guardsman and women committing suicide? Haven't they read them about active duty servicemen and women trying to heal? If they do not recognize PTSD as being behind the suicides of those who serve, no matter in what capacity, then they are attacking all demographics with it.

This means they do not value the men and women serving as police officers, State Troopers or the National Guards or those in the military enough to learn much at all, yet they have one of the best Veteran's hospitals for PTSD in the nation right there in Bedford.

They have one of the best VA psychologists honored as an expert on PTSD, author of some of the best books on PTSD, Dr. Jonathan Shay, now retired from the Boston VA, but in all these years, he was right there to get them out of the dark ages.

When we know about something good being done, we assume it is happening everywhere but this is not the case when it comes to PTSD. One state may be far ahead of other states address the trauma first responders face everyday, but a neighboring state may still be totally oblivious to it. One state may have chaplains fully train on trauma and PTSD working with survivors but ignoring the responders, or visa versa. Civilians face trauma all the time but for most, it is only a one time event while responders face multiple traumas as part of their jobs. If we do not take care of the responders, then we are not honoring anyone's service. It's as simple as that.

My friend Lily Casura over at Healing Combat Trauma wanted to make sure I read the following. It makes me wonder what it will take for all of the people we count on everyday to be able to receive all the help they need to do it.

(Photograph by Webb Chappell)
A widow speaks "I have three children who need validation from someone other than their mother that this had nothing to do with them," says Janice McCarthy, whose trooper husband killed himself with his service weapon after years spent struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The police suicide problem
Being a cop is a dangerous job -- and not just for the obvious reasons. Suicide kills more officers every year than homicides or accidents at work. But what does society owe the families of those for whom this high-stress job is too much to take? One widow answers: respect.


By Julia Dahl
January 24, 2010

Early on the afternoon of July 28, 2006, Captain Paul McCarthy of the Massachusetts State Police put on his blue trooper uniform, holstered his gun, and got into the driver’s seat of his police cruiser. McCarthy was despondent, exhausted from 13 years of physical and emotional pain. It all began on an overtime shift back in 1993: a snowy March midnight when a man driving a stolen MBTA bus bulldozed his cruiser, crushing his legs and trapping him inside the vehicle. After that came the surgeries and months spent learning to walk again. He fought hard and, defying doctors’ predictions, after a year and a half made it back to active duty in the only job he’d ever wanted.
In June 2006, he poured his frustrations into a rambling eight-page letter of complaint to the state Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, writing: “The Massachusetts State police do not recognize Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as an issue that affects the employees of the Mass State Police.”

It was all too much. On the last Friday of July, Janice and the kids were visiting family in Saratoga Springs, New York, when McCarthy stepped out of his apartment and got into his cruiser. At 6:30 p.m., he pulled up to a construction site in Canton at the junction of Route 128 and Interstate 95. A surveillance camera caught the last hour of his life: A passing thunderstorm roared through, then Paul got out of his cruiser and paced. At 7:30 p.m., he pulled out his gun and shot two rounds into a mound of dirt. Moments later, he turned the barrel around and fired a single shot into his chest. He was 41 years old.
When I went to Washington DC for Memorial Day last year, the Nam Knights also went to honor the officers as well. This picture is from the Memorial.
Janice took her case to the state retirement board, and in June 2007 her husband’s death was ruled “accidental.” The decision meant she would collect 72 percent of his pension (an “in the line of duty” death would have meant 100 percent and an additional one-time payment of nearly $100,000), but more important, it drew a line connecting his on-the-job injuries to his suicide, opening the door for what Janice McCarthy really wants -- her husband’s death to be ruled “line of duty” and his name added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.



In May of 2009, news of McCarthy’s quest reached Andy O’Hara, a former California highway patrolman and the founder of Badge of Life, a national advocacy group devoted to improving mental health training for law enforcement officers. The two began talking, and in December O’Hara and his colleagues established a working definition of line-of-duty suicide: “any police officer suicide in which work-related psychological trauma is a precipitant or significant contributor to the act of suicide.” To determine whether an officer suicide fits this definition, O’Hara suggests that outside mental health professionals conduct what’s called a “psychological autopsy,” collecting information through interviews with family and friends of the deceased and a review of his or her medical and job history.

O’Hara’s group is one of several like-minded organizations advocating for police mental health services. The National Police Suicide Foundation was begun in 1997 by a former Baltimore police officer and chaplain who lost a co-worker to suicide. In 1995, Teresa Tate of Cape Coral, Florida -- whose officer husband had taken his life in 1989 -- formed Survivors of Law Enforcement Suicide. Both groups are working to persuade departments across the country to add suicide prevention programs and awareness training for officers and to adopt more compassionate protocols for how to treat surviving families.




read more here
The police suicide problem

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Pennsylvania Trooper, kidnapper die in mountain highway shootout


Trooper, kidnapper die in mountain highway shootout

By Associated Press SWIFTWATER, Pa. (AP) - A man who kidnapped his 9-year-old son in northeastern Pennsylvania led police on a 40-mile chase that ended in a crash and an exchange of gunfire that killed him and a state trooper, state police said Monday. Another trooper was wounded, but the boy was not shot.

The chase Sunday night began outside Easton in the Pocono Mountains and ended just east of Tobyhanna when the suspect crashed his car, according to Pocono Mountain Regional Police Chief Harry Lewis. He said the suspect and police then traded gunfire.

The 31-year-old suspect, whose name was not released, died at the scene, state police said.

Trooper Joshua Miller, 34, was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, where he died of his gunshot wounds, police said. His colleague, 35-year-old Robert Lombardo, was listed in satisfactory condition at Community Medical Center in Scranton.

go here for more

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Retired Marine, Vietnam vet, Mass State Trooper missing in Idaho


Retired Marine, Mass. State Trooper Missing In Idaho
Boston Channel.com - MA, USA
Relatives, Friends Seek Massachusetts Authorities' Help To Find Man
Video: Retired State Trooper Missing In Idaho
POSTED: 12:28 am EDT October 2, 2008
BOSTON -- Relatives fear officials aren't doing enough to find a war and state police veteran who disappeared during a hunting trip in Idaho.

Ronald Gray, of North Brookfield, disappeared 12 days ago while on a hunting trip in the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho.

NewsCenter 5's Mary Saladna reported that Nancy Gray isn't used to worrying about her husband.

"I know he's a survivor. I'm not concerned about food. I'm concerned about his knee. I think he's hurt and I want more people out there," Nancy Gray said.

Ronald Gray is a retired state police captain and 35-year veteran of the force. He's also a former Marine who survived two years and two serious wounds in Vietnam.
click link for more

Monday, July 28, 2008

Trooper Death Is Detailed in New Report

Trooper Death Is Detailed in New Report
By FERNANDA SANTOS
Published: July 28, 2008

At 7:28 a.m. on April 25, 2007, in a quiet corner of the Catskill Mountains, an indoor motion alarm went off at a vacant farmhouse, a half-mile from where a van driven by a suspect in the shooting of a New York State trooper the previous day had been found abandoned.

The alarm unleashed a chain of events that culminated in a fierce shootout involving an elite team of state troopers, known at the time as mobile response teams. In the two-minute gun battle, during which more than 80 bullets were fired, two men lost their lives: the suspect, Travis D. Trim, and one of the troopers, David C. Brinkerhoff.

Within a few days, State Police officials revealed that Trooper Brinkerhoff had killed Mr. Trim, a 23-year-old college dropout from North Lawrence, N.Y., and was then killed by a shot from a colleague.

The death of Trooper Brinkerhoff, 29, raised questions about the quality of the unit’s training, the tactics its members used in the farmhouse that morning and the conduct of the trooper who fired the fatal round. Meanwhile, State Police investigators remained tight-lipped as they tried to determine if negligence or other criminal behavior contributed in any way to Mr. Brinkerhoff’s death.

Fifteen months later, the first official account of what transpired at the farmhouse has emerged. An internal State Police report, obtained by The New York Times under a Freedom of Information request, reveals that Trooper Brinkerhoff may have unknowingly placed himself in the line of fire when he raised his head just as a colleague standing behind him fired a shot at Mr. Trim.


In the previous 14 months, six troopers had died, including two who were shot in 2006 by a fugitive, Ralph L. Phillips — known as Bucky — whom Trooper Brinkerhoff had helped track.

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Thursday, July 24, 2008

MA State Trooper, hero killed in car crash

Hero trooper is killed in car crash
By Brian R. Ballou
Globe Staff / July 24, 2008
A state trooper honored two years ago for helping to pull a woman from a burning car died early yesterday morning in an off-duty car accident less than 2 miles from his Hingham home.

According to the State Police, Gregory K. Porter, 33, hit a tree at the intersection of Central and Emerald streets at 12:36 a.m. Porter was the only occupant of his 2000 Hyundai Elantra. He was rushed to South Shore Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Porter, a married father of two, worked out of the Norwell Barracks, about 10 miles from the accident scene.

David Procopio, a State Police spokesman, said Porter's last shift was from 11 p.m. Monday to 7 a.m Tuesday, and that at the time of the accident Porter was on the first of his two days off. Procopio said the accident is under investigation by the Hingham Police Department and State Police and that a toxicology exam will be performed as part of regular procedure.

Authorities said that there was no indication that alcohol was a factor in the accident and that it was not certain yesterday if Porter was wearing a seat belt.
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Friday, July 4, 2008

Maj. Dwayne M. Kelley, Army Reserve and NJ State Trooper laid to rest

N.J. troopers join mourners at soldier's funeral
By Edward Colimore

Inquirer Staff Writer

For hours yesterday, they walked down the aisle of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Burlington City and paused at the open, flag-draped casket to say goodbye.

Family members, friends and soldiers were followed by hundreds of New Jersey state troopers. They were joined by scores of officers from police departments as far away as Illinois and Connecticut.

Maj. Dwayne M. Kelley, a state trooper and Army Reservist who died June 24 in an explosion in Baghdad, "stood alone in his devotion to duty," said Gov. Corzine yesterday from the pulpit.

He was a "great trooper, soldier and patriot," said Col. Joseph Fuentes, the New Jersey State Police superintendent.

At 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, he was a "gentle giant who walked softly and did the right thing," added Army Lt. Col. Mark Corzine, Kelley's commanding officer at Fort Dix.

Tributes to the Willingboro native, who was on his third tour in Iraq, poured in during a "homegoing" service, mixed with tearful mourning and joyful celebration.
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