A Westover doc follows her dream, steeped in tradition

  • Published
  • By By Senior Master Sgt. Sandi Michon
  • 439th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass. - --  Lt. Col. Colleen E. Kelley was headed into the military in 1983, but a fall out of a tree, delayed her service for 17 years.
Westover's chief of flight medicine received a military scholarship for medical school when the accident put her on crutches for six months. Then, medical school, marriage, three kids, and a job kept her away from her military ambitions.
However, in 2000, at age 40, she entered the Reserve program here.
She is petite and fit in her gray-green flight suit that matches her eyes. Her salt-and-pepper hair tries to escape her neat French braid, and her tone is direct and compassionate.
"I come from a strong military tradition," Colonel Kelley explained.
Her father was a paratrooper in the Korean War and her maternal grandfather was a surgeon at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Colonel Kelley's grandfather was so affected by the war he decided he would rather become a psychiatrist because he felt it would have a greater long-term impact on making his fellow soldiers whole again.
"He worked for 48 hours straight and saw so much blood that he became a psychiatrist - because [he said] sutures can mend a physical injury quickly, but it takes a lifetime to mend a man's soul," she said, recalling her grandfather's words of compassion.
Her younger brother, James Kelley, is an ROTC grad of Massachusetts Institute for Technology, and is now a colonel and an F-16 instructor pilot.
Part of what pulled the older sister, Colonel Kelley, to the military was her frequent travels overseas. "I realized how much we have, not in goods, but in freedom, rights and safety and how much we take that for granted," she said.
"So much of our stability is a direct result of our military, not only in the United States, but around the world."
A good part of her 17-year military delay, was spent convincing her husband, Nino Mendolia, to support her passion to serve. As a first generation Canadian immigrant from Sicily, Nino's father went AWOL when conscripted into Mussolini's army. He was subsequently captured and spent time in a Yugoslavian concentration camp, but survived because his tailor skills were useful to camp guards. Despite the stories of an oppressive military in the Sicilian mountains, he supported his wife's dream.
Colonel Kelley's husband's support deepened to appreciation after September 11, 2001. "On Sept. 11, I was stranded in Egypt with my daughter. My husband told me that he gets it now... [my military service] is not just a good thing to do, it's the right thing to do," she said.
Eight years later, the emergency room doctor with St. Mary's Hospital in Troy, N.Y., is still saying "thank you" with her military service at Westover and expanding the reach and influence of the American military in diplomatic nation-building and humanitarian outreach.
In 2005, she spent two weeks in Guatemala, treating patients in remote clinics with the 710th Medical Squadron from Omaha, Neb.
In 2007, she participated in a combined medical-missionary mission in Bizerte, Tunesia at Kharouba Air Base, where she trained with the Tunesian military, teaching aeromedical transport concepts.
She found her fluency in French a huge advantage in Tunesia and they have invited her back for future exercises.
"We fly, fight and win wars but also share expertise and win hearts," she said.
Not surprisingly, Colonel Kelley volunteers her time at the Burrburton Academy in Vermont, volunteers monthly at the Roarke Center free-medical clinic in Troy, N.Y., and she serves on a committee for Boy Scout Troop 253 in Vermont.
"When I joined the military at age 40, most people thought I was crazy," she said. "I'm not crazy. I'm doing what I've wanted to do for a very long time."