Maui honors
soldier who died
in Iraq warFriends remember
Kelly Bolor from his years
at Lahainaluna
LAHAINA >> Amid the strumming of ukuleles and Hawaiian singing at Maria Lanakila Church, hundreds of people including elected officials paid their respects last night to U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Kelly Bolor, who died fighting in Iraq.
"It's just really a sad moment," said U.S. Rep. Ed Case, holding a U.S. flag he planned to present to the Bolor family. "I just felt I needed to come to express my deep sorrow."
STAR-BULLETIN FILE
U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Kelly Bolor, born on Maui, was among 17 soldiers killed Nov. 15 when two U.S. copters were shot down in Iraq.
Bolor had recently bought a home in California for his wife and 3-year-old son and planned to return to Maui on a visit as soon as he was finished with his tour in Iraq.
Bolor, 37, born in Wailuku and raised in Lahaina, was among 17 people killed when two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters plummeted to the ground on Nov. 15 after one chopper was hit by a missile in northern Iraqi.
Bolor, who served in two separate wars in the Middle East, is the first soldier born on Maui killed in the Iraq war.
Gov. Linda Lingle has asked that state flags be flown at half staff today, in honor of Bolor.
"He was just one of those kids who never really complained," said Kim Ball, Bolor's wrestling coach at Lahainaluna High School. "He was always disciplined, very respectful. I know military service was important to him. He was proud of it and we were proud of him."
Bolor, 37, born in Wailuku, grew up in state public housing in David Malo Circle, a rough section of Lahaina near Pioneer Mill, and was the third-oldest child in a Filipino family of five boys and a girl raised by their late mother, Annie, after her husband died in 1968.
"It was tough. There were a lot of bad influences (in the neighborhood), but they came out OK," Ball said.
Annie Bolor put her children through Sacred Hearts School in Lahaina by working in the cafeteria there, and Kelly Bolor worked with his sister and brothers to do school chores to defray the cost of tuition.
After the unexpected death of his father at age 50, Kelly and his twin brother, Keith, helped in raising their younger brothers.
GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
In preparation yesterday for services last night and today, family members on Maui sorted through photographs of Army Sgt. 1st Class Kelly Bolor, who died on Nov. 15 in northern Iraq. Bolor was the first Maui-born soldier to die in the Iraq war.
Rocky Bolor, one of his younger brothers and a master sergeant in the Army, remembers Kelly helping to fix breakfast and setting out the school clothes for the younger children.
To help support the family, Kelly Bolor worked at a McDonald's restaurant while attending high school and picked pineapples during the summer.
"He worked hard in everything he did," Rocky Bolor recalled. "He never gave less than 110 percent in his personal life."
Ball said as a senior, Kelly Bolor and two of his other brothers were part of the wrestling team that won the Maui Interscholastic League championship in 1984 and that his mother always attended the wrestling matches.
One of Bolor's younger brothers, Conrad, is now an assistant wrestling coach at Lahainaluna.
Bolor served four years in the Army after graduating from Lahainaluna, in hopes it would lead to a better education and better life, the family said.
He returned to Maui, where he met his wife in 1989, and the two moved to California.
As an Army reservist, Bolor served for about a year in the early 1990s in Operation Desert Storm, liberating Kuwait from Iraq.
Family members said he was about to be promoted to supervisor in his public works job in Los Angeles County and was a member of the Army Reserve's 137th Quartermaster Company stationed in El Monte, Calif., when he was called into active duty in January.
He was deployed in Iraq in February, ferrying supplies to soldiers in the front lines.
Conrad Bolor said the family appreciates the many calls of sympathy and the many people who have offered help, including one person who plans to do a helicopter flower drop at the funeral today.
Visitation at the church will continue at 8 a.m. today, with Mass at 10 a.m. Burial is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. at Maui Memorial Park. Kelly Bolor will be buried near his father, Martin, and mother, Annie.
Bolor is survived by wife Kelly, son Kyle, sister Nitta Kinimaka and brothers Keith "Maxie," Conrad, Rocky and Alvin.
