General P.X. Kelley

		General P.X. Kelley
		My involvement with Operation Welcome Home brought me into contact with community members who were deeply involved with the effort to create a Rochester memorial to area servicemen who were killed in the war in Vietnam. (Take a look at their web page when you have a chance; they've done some tremendous work and the memorial is now complete. The Rochester Vietnam Veterans Memorial.) The best known member of the board of the Greater Rochester Vietnam Veterans Memorial Committee was Paul X. Kelley, General, USMC (retired). General Kelley had been the 28th Commandant of the Marine Corps. Coincidentally, he had also been, as LtCol P.X. Kelley, the CO of the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines, when I was that unit's Artillery Liaison Officer in 1966. I had the good fortune to be invited to a luncheon for the general. (P.X. is shown here after the luncheon outside the home of former Marine Pat Tobin.) Our closest contact in Vietnam was during Operation Texas, and most of our conversation that day centered on that. We've touched base several times over the past years, and General Kelley did me the honor of writing the foreword to my book.