Jerry Kelley

Jerry Kelley was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in nearby Royal Oak. He attended Oakland University, graduating in 1965, and enlisted in the Army that October. He trained as an infantry officer and completed airborne training, and then attended Special Warfare School and trained as a psychological warfare officer. He then went to Vietnam in 1967 and was assigned to the 4th Psychological Operations Group. He was stationed initially at Can Tho in the Mekong Delta, and then to a smaller base in the IV Corps area, where he worked with the South Vietnamese military as well as with his own team. After several months, he was transferred to his unit's headquarters in Saigon. His principal focus was the "Chieu Hoi" program, a propaganda effort designed to persuade Viet Cong to turn themselves in and live peacefully under South Vietnamese government rule. He helped design propaganda leaflets to drop on areas of Viet Cong activity, and conducted surveys of prisoners of war to gather information to use in designing the leaflets. He was on night duty and the end of January when the Tet Offensive began, and organized his six men to defend their headquarters, which fortunately was not attacked. He received his discharge in 1968 and began a long career in education, and has continues to officiate high school and college sports even after retirement.