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SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

Friday, March 29, 2024

After death under guardianship, Tuskegee Airman’s uniforms found on a San Antonio street

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SAN ANTONIO - When Thomas Kelly, 59, drove by his parent’s home on Enid Street near Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, he didn’t expect to see two of his father’s military uniforms flapping in the wind on the front lawn.

“I was embarrassed and then I became angry to find his military clothing and other belongings scattered on the street,” Kelly said. “My father’s legacy is desecrated.”

Kelly’s father, Major James Johnson Kelly, was a Tuskegee Airman who had received a Congressional Medal of Honor from former President Bush in 2016 but by 2017 the retired military officer had been placed under guardianship by a Bexar County probate judge, which the younger Kelly feels was unwarranted. 

“I am shocked at how the court treated a Tuskegee Airman who dedicated his life to serving our country and bettering the community,” Kelly said in an interview. “The court-appointed guardian stopped taking my Dad to the hospital for medical care and began charging his estate $25 for an aspirin or $75 to mow the lawn.”

Major Kelly died a ward of the state of Texas on December 29, 2018, at 91 years old, a press release states.

“I would like to have my Dad’s Congressional medal as an heirloom to give my grandchildren but I don’t know what the court-appointed guardian did with it,” he added.

Originally from High Point, North Carolina, Major Kelly began his career in 1945 with the 99th Fighter Squadron and 332nd Fighter Group in the Army Air Corps before becoming a Tuskegee Airman for the Air Force during World War 2. After he flew in the Korean War at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Kelly retired in 1970 as a Major and Squadron Commander.

Major Kelly's son says the court-appointed guardian not only sold his father’s property in Lynchburg, Virginia without his knowledge but also sold his parents’ San Antonio home, which is why Kelly said their belongings were left outside.

“It’s all about money,” Kelly said. “No one seems to care about his legacy as a Tuskegee Airman.”

The retired trucking company owner isn’t the only American who is challenged by a court-appointed guardianship. Popstar Britney Spears’ conservatorship was the subject of a New York Times documentary expose, which lead GOP Congressmen Jim Jordan of Ohio and Matt Gaetz of Florida to request a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee to review and examine the plight of those trapped unjustly under guardianship or conservatorship.

“If the conservatorship process can rip the agency from a woman who was in the prime of her life and one of the most powerful pop stars in the world, imagine what it can do to people who are less powerful and have less of a voice,” Congressman Gaetz said in a statement online.

Gaetz and Jordan issued a letter to the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler on March 8, requesting a hearing.

“In recent years, there has been growing public concern about the use of conservatorships to effectively deprive individuals of personal freedoms at the behest of others through the manipulation of the courts,” the letter states. “Give the constitutional freedoms at stake and opaqueness of these arrangements, it is incumbent upon our Committee to convene a hearing to examine whether Americans are trapped unjustly in conservatorships.”

Both Gaetz and Jordan are members of the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Jordan serves as ranking member.

As previously reported, once appointed by a Judge, a guardian of an adult or senior citizen, is empowered to liquidate their assets, sedate the individual with physician-prescribed psychotropic medication, deny the choice of food, marital status, health insurance, medical care, and even ban visits with friends and family members.

Kelly says his mother, Sallie Mae, who is Major Kelly’s widow, is currently under guardianship with the same guardian.

 “My mom is still alive but I have to request permission to see her,” Kelly said. “I shouldn’t have to request permission to see my own mother. I know she wants to see me."

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