Lieutenant Colonel David E. Kelly retired from the Marine Corps Reserves in 1999 after a 29-year career, both active and reserve. His newest book of Marine combat stories, “Eight Wheeled Warriors and Grunts” shares the stories of Marines in Light Armored Vehicles and infantry operations in Iraq.

In late 2003, he agreed to return to active duty in order to deploy to Iraq as one of only two Marine Field Historians there. During the planning stages that year, the Marine
Corps trained for Security and Stability Operations, but events would overtake this planning as a full-scale insurgency began in the spring of 2004. During his five-month deployment, Lieutenant Colonel Kelly and Major John Piedmont traveled to interview Marines in all areas of Iraq.

Upon completion of the deployment, he sent all oral interviews and photographs of the Marines interviewed to the Marine Corps Oral History division, now located at Quantico, Virginia. He “re-retired” on the completion of his deployment, and returned to civilian life in the fall of 2004. He first used these interviews to write the books: “Hell in the Streets of Husaybah” and “First Fights in Fallujah.” “Eight Wheeled Warriors and Grunts” is the third book in the series.

Lieutenant Colonel David E. Kelly retired in June 2017 as high school history teacher at Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of West Catholic Boys’ High School and St. Joseph’s University.