LTC (R) Kelly Cole

LTC (R) Kelly Cole sat down with me for Heroes Live.

Jumpmaster buddies. Early nineties. He still has the hat. Twenty-nine years. Nine years and six months enlisted. Then OCS. He retired in 2017 as a lieutenant colonel at Army Central Command. More than 25 of those years at Fort Bragg. One hundred sixty-eight static line jumps. Eighty HALO. Centurion jumpmaster wings in 2001.

Third-generation paratrooper. He quit college. National Guard. September 1990 he and Tom Disberg drove to Sioux City, Iowa. Recruiter had his feet on the desk. Reading the paper. Told them to get out. College kids jerking him around. Tom wanted 18 X-ray. 18 Delta. Kelly wanted to be an airborne ranger. They signed.

Airborne school at Benning during the first Gulf War. He thought he was going. One hundred eighty of them at reception. Sixty to Stewart. Sixty to Campbell. Sixty to Drum. He drew Drum. He had mailed his cold weather gear home. Four feet of snow. Recon scout in Triple Deuce. Poor leadership. After the war his platoon sergeant gave him a letter and told him to walk Ardennes. He showed up at 82nd reception in winter BDUs. Polished jump boots. A briefcase. PFC Cole asked for the sergeant major. First of the 505.

He grew up in chaos. Three fathers. His dad went to airborne school on Bragg in 1958. First of the 508. Alpha Company. A scuffle in McCall. Chain gang. They called him a deserter. Dishonorable from the 82nd. He went and played Hell's Angel. Met Kelly's mom when she was a table dancer. A stepfather died of an overdose in the bathtub at 35. Kelly was a functioning alcoholic young. Angry. Football. He ran to the Army because the rules were simple.

I was his jumpmaster instructor. He said I was the first leader who reflected Jesus Christ. The way I spoke. The way I treated people. He does not say that lightly. He says without Christ he would not be the man or the father he is.

He kept learning. Master's in business management and leadership. He was working a doctorate in business administration. A mentor of almost 25 years told him to keep growing. His wife says he has the gift of gab. Three hours on the tape. I barely got a word in.

He left Advanced Airborne School and lost the job that day. Same day he got a new one. Same day somebody bought his Jeep. He calls it a Forest Gump career. Green ramp. 1994. Turret training. I told him that crash day was the worst day of my life. We did not get to all of it. We will do part two. That is why we hit record. Get the story on tape before we are too old or too sick to tell it.