Corporal Kelly was a member of Company C, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. He was taken Prisoner of War while fighting the enemy near Kunu-ri, North Korea on November 26, 1950 and died while a prisoner on March 31, 1951. His remains were not recovered at the time. Through the work of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the remains of Kelly were accounted for in 2017, and his name remains permanently inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial.