When retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. George Kesnig passed away on March 13, 2024, his wife of 70 years, Clair, followed him 21 hours later. Their marriage was tried by war yet blessed with family.
Kesnig fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War while Clair raised their four children. During their joint funeral service at Arlington National Cemetery on July 28, 2025, U.S. Army Chaplain (Capt.) Philip Morlock told the gathering of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, that the Kesnigs’ 70-year marriage was “a testament to love that truly knew no bounds.”
Morlock described George Kesnig’s service as an example of “unwavering dedication to our country”; Clair, he said, was “the pillar of strength,” and “the steadfast heart of the family.” After the funeral, the four Kesnig children came together to remember their parents’ lives and legacies.
Kesnig enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II at the age of 16. He wanted to join his three older brothers, who were preparing to deploy overseas. His mother signed that he was 18 on his enlistment papers. “When the Army realized he was underage, they made him get out,” Sherril Kelly, the Kesnigs’ oldest daughter, said. “Then, as soon as he turned 18, he went back in.”
During the Korean War, Kesnig served as an observer with an artillery battalion in the 24th Infantry Division. He flew more than 60 missions over enemy territory in an unarmed plane in the last months of 1951. After he returned home to Bogota, New Jersey, Kesnig met Clair Kelley in nearby Bergenfield and the two married in 1954. They had four children: Sherril, Cindy, Charles and Roxanne.
Kesnig earned a lieutenant’s commission in the U.S. Army and took Clair and their growing family to Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where, among his other duties, he coached one of the fort’s football teams. His older children remembered games attended by Brigadier General William Westmoreland. “I would sit on the general’s lap, and he would feed me Cheez-Its,” said Sherril, who was a child at the time, “and I would get Shirley Temple drinks from him.”
When Kesnig was ordered to Vietnam with the staff of the 25th Infantry Division, Clair brought their children to the airport to say goodbye. As Kesnig walked across the tarmac to his aircraft, three-year-old Charles pursued. “He brought a peanut butter and jelly sandwich he had saved from his lunch and wanted to run it to my dad,” related Roxanne. Clair, holding Roxanne, could not go after Charles. Fortunately, one of the soldiers exiting the aircraft, returning from Vietnam, picked Charles up and delivered him to his mother. “It was just a normal day for a military family,” said Roxanne with a smile. “Always, picture perfect.”
As an operations officer with the 25th, Kesnig often flew over enemy lines in a helicopter. During one operation, a unit he was directing came under enemy fire and was almost entirely wiped out. After his division tour, he served Westmoreland again, now the commander of Military Assistance Command-Vietnam, as his inspector general in Saigon.
The war would always stay with Kesnig. When Sherril and Cindy grew up and invited their parents to accompany their Girl Scout troop to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., Kesnig said he could not go, recalling the loss of his men. “I can't go and see all my friends’ names,” Sherril recalled him telling her, “because my name should be there too.” Clair accompanied her daughters on the trip, but when they got to the wall, she could not bring herself to read the list of names and chose to sit on a park bench.
George and Clair loved being grandparents and great-grandparents. “There’s about 40 of us,” Sherril said about the growing clan of Kesnigs. Clair never forgot to send everyone a birthday card. “For 70 years she sent cards and signed every one with ‘Love Always,’” Sherril explained, “so we had the saying made into bracelets.” Almost on cue, the four Kesnig children held out their arms. Each wore a silver bracelet with the words, ‘Love Always.’
During the funeral service, Chaplain Morlock called the love between George and Clair patient, kind and enduring, and it conquered all, “regardless of turmoil.” He then comforted the family, many of them wiping away tears, when he said, “They spent a lifetime together here on earth, and now they begin an eternity together in heaven.”
