November 12, 2024

Wilbraham veteran shares faith, inspires hope

REGIONAL
By Stephen Kiltonic

WILBRAHAM – Bob Kelliher is a well-known, faith-filled Catholic in the Diocese of Springfield. He and his wife Margaret have three grown children and seven grandchildren. The couple, who will celebrate their 53rd wedding anniversary on Nov. 20, is involved in the Cursillo movement and Bob is a longtime cantor at Holy Name Parish in Springfield. Having served in the Vietnam War, Kelliher was named Veteran of the Year in 2023 for the town of Wilbraham. But he said his faith has been his center and saving grace, helping to heal wounds of war.

 “Being able to sing, which is praying twice, has been my therapy, if you will,” said Kelliher, after a recent Sunday Mass at Holy Name Parish.  “Being able to go to church but able to really participate by virtue of singing, I can’t think of anything better,” he said.

Kelliher, one of eight children, grew up in an Irish Catholic household in Springfield’s Forest Park neighborhood, not far from Holy Name.

“My mother and father were very, very devout Catholics and brought us up in the Catholic way of life. Every Sunday was Mass day with suit and tie,” he recalled.

Kelliher graduated from Cathedral High in 1966.  He had a job and took some night courses but his future path was unknown. His father was a captain in the Army Air Corps, part of the Greatest Generation.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Kelliher enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1968 and was assigned as an infantryman with the first Air Cavalry Division. He was in the thick of battle and helicoptered into enemy territory on combat missions to engage the Viet Cong. 

“We would traverse through the jungle. We’d set up ambushes during the day, certainly ambushes at night,” he said. “At one point, I walked point which is a very dangerous job because you’re the first one in the line of march…I saw the carnage. I saw what gunfire does to a human being. It’s not pretty,” he said.

“I actually was shot out of the helicopter twice once in my first tour once in my second… because of the skill of the pilots, particularly the second time, I don’t think I ever would have made it,” he said.

At 21, Kelliher attained the rank of sergeant and was leader of a platoon.

“I served with some of the finest men you could ever possibly imagine, from all over the country,” he said. “Our job was to take care of one another, which we did.”

Kelliher’s close friend was fellow radio operator, Mark Nielsen, from Idaho. Their unit was ambushed and Nielsen was shot in the face.

“I picked him up and I ran with him for maybe 75 yards to a 100 yards to the tree line,” he said. “The bullets were flying around and I said to myself ‘if they’re going to kill Mark, they’re going to have to kill me too.’ It’s ok. I’m willing to die for my friend.”

Kelliher’s Catholic faith was always present. He carried a prayer of war card given to him by his mother.

“I was always praying to myself… I wasn’t praying for me. I was praying for my men.”

During another ambush, Kelliher was in a firefight and noticed a soldier 20 yards away who had been hit, face down in the mud.

“It was this young Hispanic lad from Brooklyn and I knew that the wound was fatal. I said I will not let this young man die with his face in the mud. I will not let this young man die alone.”

Although bullets were flying, Kelliher felt as if an invisible wall surrounded and protected him. 

“I just held him and his last words were ‘donde esta mi madre.’ He called for his mother and then he passed,” he said.

Kelliher and the medic lifted the soldier into the waiting medivac helicopter. He said there is no doubt that he saw the face of Jesus that day in that young man.

“His face was covered in the blood and the mud. I said to myself the last vision was this is the face of Jesus and then that was it. He was gone. That was a tough one,” he said.

The experience enhanced Kelliher’s faith.  His father, in the meantime, visited Our Lady of Hope Parish in the Hungry Hill neighborhood of Springfield daily to recite the Latin words over the entrance.

“’In this place, I give peace’…and father, being quite religious himself, drove by that church every single day without fail. Regardless of the weather, regardless of the time, he would say that so that I would come home,” he said.

Kelliher reenlisted for a second tour as an intelligence and operations advisor. He returned home in 1970 and married his wife Margaret in November of 1971.  As the years went by, Kelliher couldn’t figure out why he screamed and had nightmares every night; why he was filled with anger, sadness and guilt.   

 “My sister Mary and a few others felt that I need to go to the VA hospital in Leeds for some therapy if you will – post traumatic stress disorder.”

Kelliher got the help he needed from the VA and a psychiatric nurse by the name of George Kennedy.

“He was a Korean war veteran and he was an angel. He was one of my saviors and I would go up every Thursday night without fail,” he said. “If it wasn’t for my wife and George Kennedy and family members, I wouldn’t be here.”

Kelliher’s recovery included sessions at Springfield’s Vietnam Veterans Center where he bonded with fellow vets. His involvement in the Cursillo movement in the 1980s increased his faith. Today, Kelliher still leads Cursillo retreats. He had jobs with Bank of Boston and was a residential supervisor at the Hampden County Sheriff Department’s pre-release center. He also worked for Springfield’s alternative high school, counseling troubled youth.

He retired in 2005 and later was a social and emotional support supervisor at the Thornton Burgess Middle School in Hampden. He also volunteered at the Wilbraham Middle School and is fondly known as Mr. Bob.

“I was Mr. Bob and regardless of their situation. They knew it was a safe place. They knew there was no judgement and they bared their souls,” he said.

Today, Kelliher keeps busy as a volunteer with the Read Aloud Program and for Bay State veterans hospice program. He faithfully sings at Holy Name Parish, despite health issues and still suffers from the effects of Vietnam’s Agent Orange.   

“My wife Margaret is the one who has really kept me together for 53 plus years. If anyone has earned her way to heaven, it’s Margaret,” he said.

In 2020, Kelliher’s sister Judith, 12 years his junior, wrote A Wartime PH.D., to answer her own questions about her brother’s experience in Vietnam. It was cathartic for Bob as well.

“It’s for people who have experienced perhaps other traumas in their life and not necessarily war,” he said. “You can recover from things like this. There is the opportunity to move forward and help others.”

Kelliher is proud of having been named Wilbraham’s Veteran of the Year in 2023 and he’s never forgotten the men he served with. All of his “brothers in arms” from Vietnam have since passed including his friend, Mark Neilsen, who took his life after coming home. 

“We honor and respect those who are serving or who have served with honor and dignity. That’s why every day is Veterans Day as far as I’m concerned,” said Kelliher.

Bob Kelliher was featured Sunday, Nov. 10 on “Reel to Real.” To watch the story, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-yfSFA0YRs