Area Soldiers Among Iraq Crash Victims

Kelly was a mentor to many soldiers coming up through the ranks, soldiers said. Sgt. 1st Class Arturo Robinson remembered how years ago, when he was getting into disciplinary trouble, Kelly called him into his office and told him to take a hard look at the way he was acting.

It was the sort of command that officers give their soldiers all the time -- and often go ignored. But something about the way Kelly said it -- firmly but with respect -- got through to him. "He saved my career," Robinson said. "I would walk behind him in any war, in any place."

Kelly's brother, John, yesterday recalled a man who cherished the soldiers he worked with.

"Every time we communicated with him, he'd ask us to pray for all the soldiers doing a great job out there," John Kelly said. "He was extremely caring and dedicated both to the profession and his family and friends. He loved what he did, and he loved his country."

Morgan Haller said serving in the military was a tradition in her family: Both her grandfathers were in the military, and her 22-year-old brother Daniel served as an Army sergeant in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Roger Haller was a teenager when he moved to Cambridge, Md., where he and his wife raised three children, including 17-year-old Kathryn. He was a typical suburban father who liked to travel with his family, going backpacking, camping and hunting. "He was our swim coach for eight years," Morgan Haller said. "And he was our Little League coach of T-ball."

After a divorce, he moved this past year to the Annapolis area, his daughter said, to be closer to the Guard offices there. As much as he wanted to go to war, he made sure to pick a tour that would get him back home by May -- in time for his younger daughter's graduation.

Staff writer Raymond McCaffrey and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report. Christian Davenport reported from Al Asad, Iraq, where he is a fellow at the Alicia Patterson Foundation.