The Name was not the same

    Kelley, Kelly, Cully, Earley Hearley-(HURLEY)
     Way back in 1951, when I was 17 years old, on my way to the Korean War, I became friends with three guys: an Irishman, John Kelly, born in Ireland but hailing from New York City; another Irishman, John J. Earley, born in the USA, Waterbury, CT; an Italian, William "Bill" Valletta, also born in Waterbury, CT.
     I had a close relationship with Kelly, mostly because we were both foreign-born and our accent and pronunciation of certain words was discussed often. My inability to say "Earley," which I pronounced "Hearley," became a battle between Earley and me. He would correct me for not pronouncing his name, I thought, only to find out 58 years later that it was not "Hurley," but "Earley," where all the time I thought I was being correct on "Hearley". I finally came to terms by calling him "Kelly", the American/Irishman. This name stays in my memory for more than fifty years.
    When he was wounded, I called him "Kelly" and, in the aid station, I asked if Kelly made it. All my life I thought that I carried Kelly to the aid station, where he died due to loss of blood, three hours later. During the fifty plus years, I often thought of contacting his family and telling them how he died.
    All I knew of him was:  He was not married, He was a good bit older, He was from Ohio( not true). His name was not spelled K-E-L-L-Y but could be K-E-L-L-E-Y or C-U-L-L-Y  I searched on the internet for 'John Kelley/Kelly/Cully, state of Ohio'. In 2006, I started asking others over the internet and when I went to reunions, asking for someone with the last name of "Kelly" or some variation of that spelling.
    I was trying to reach John Kelly from New York City. Only he would be able to tell me where the other Kelley originated.
   Bits of information started arriving after everyone had given up on finding the man I knew as Kelley. In a dream, it came to me that the difference could be in their first name and not the last.  Sure as hell, I checked the Korean War Casualty databases to see who died on April, 11, 1951 and found John J. Earley died of wounds that day. John Kelly, from NY City, was wounded in July and returned to the USA! In my Company G 19th, the roster listed a Robert Earley L, who was from Ohio. He was also wounded, but not until the 13th of April. The four G Co wounded the 11th April, were: Coleman, Ellis Pike, KY; McMinn, Clark, Hayes, NE; Brown, Roy M, Jr ??, Dubois, Alfred E; Franklin, MA. When the enemy appeared on the ridge shooting at us we placed our wounded on their poncho and ran down as fast as possible with them shooting till we were out of sight.
 Robert Earley and I went on R&R to Japan, 10 Aug 51... was this the reason why my thinking that John J. Early (the other Irishman) was from Ohio?
When we all met at the grave site of John J Earley, in Waterbury, CT, New St. Joseph Cemetery, April, 11, 2010, a  "HURLEY's" grave was also nearby, another reason why John J Earley was correcting my pronounceation of his last name. (Mission Accomplished: it took 58 Years to find the family of John J Earley!!!)