Richard Kelly on a rooftop for a short pause in the Baghdad heat.

Whatever it was—and it was probably all the above—it helped Richard Kelly thrive in an unusually hostile environment for four grueling months in Iraq. Kelly, a two-year Corps of Engineers veteran now working as a budget analyst in the High Desert Area Office, managed a financial program for projects valued at more than $1.3 billion and additional new construction project funds valued at $500 million.

Not exactly chump change. And there’s more.

LTC Stephen E. Jeselink, deputy commander of the Gulf Region Division’s Central District, wrote that Kelly “provided valuable assistance in the overall administration of the largest mission the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has ever undertaken, namely two contracts with Bechtel National Inc. worth $1.03 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively.”

From March to July, Kelly worked out of the Baghdad Convention Center, its walls pocked from mortar rounds. Now back in the U.S., Kelly praises the troops who protected him and hundreds of others toiling in the Green Zone. “I felt safe,” he recalls, “considering you’re surrounded by people who have a different agenda—to kill you if they could.”

Kelly, whose B.S. is in forestry and with an MBA from the Garvin School of International Management (formerly Thunderbird) in Arizona, understates the simplicity of his daily routine. “Bechtel would send an invoice or voucher, I’d process them and send them on to USAID for approval, and Bechtel would get paid,” he says.

LTC Jeselink elaborated on Kelly’s mission, for which he volunteered: “Richard was essential in keeping the vast amounts of financial information organized and available for everyone to use. He also played a major role in maintaining the USAID’s project office property accountability of over $600,000 of office equipment when he eagerly filled in as the logistics manager for nearly two months.”

Usually tethered to his computer, Kelly did venture out to the Red Zone three times, visiting the Ministry of Housing and Construction. Otherwise, he was mostly indoors. LTC Jeselink called Kelly’s working environment “austere and dangerous.”

Kelly compared his tour to the movie “’Groundhog Day,’ where you repeat the same day every day. You slept six or seven hours, worked seven days, 12 to 14 hours a day, got some sleep and went right back to it. There was no time off. You could take annual leave or sick time any time you wanted, but all we wanted to do was work. It was ‘Groundhog Day’—you did it.”

He also insists that he was simply part of a team, that every member pulled his or her fair share of the load.

Another of Kelly’s tasks was to plan and execute a complete relocation of all property to a new office—“with no loss of accountability,” said LTC Jeselink. “His outstanding technical abilities, combined with his ever-positive attitude, were key to the successful mission accomplishment” for the Central District.

Unlike some recent returnees who’ve been embittered by their Iraq experiences, Kelly remains upbeat. “I saw the Iraqis taking more responsibility for their work,” he relates. “The U.S. government was pushing for the Iraqi people to run their country. Once they bought into the idea that their future was going to be in their hands, I saw more and more of it every day. I predict the Iraqi National Guard and soldiers now being trained will pick up more and more of the responsibility for security—the No. 1 issue. They wanted security and they wanted electricity—it’s 117 (degrees) and at nighttime you swelter.”

One project Kelly points to with particular pride is one of the largest wastewater treatment plants in the Middle East, just outside Baghdad. “The Corps of Engineers got it online,” he says. “Cleaned it, rehabbed it, got new structures. There were 500 or 600 people working on it. Once that starts and is successful, momentum will build.”

Many expats were worried about the handoff from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the State Dept. and its huge embassy, but Kelly believes the transition went well. “Everybody was expecting some spectacular event, but it didn’t happen,” he says. “I saw people feeling optimistic—Iraqis as well as people in my office. I saw improvement. Elections will be held, and Saddam will be at the end of a rope.”

Like some U.S. military officers, Kelly thinks more civilian boots are needed on the ground. “We needed more people,” he recalls. “There were 21 when I got there and we ended up with 13 when I left. We have to keep things going, but we’re so stretched. We did a lot of things we didn’t have the skill sets for. They need everyone they can get—I hope more people volunteer.”

Another pressing need is better engineering skills among the Iraqis themselves. “Their skill set is 20 years behind the equipment that international corporations are building now,” he says. “They require a new mindset, for example, on maintenance. That’s the training we’re trying to do to instill in the engineers and all the way down.”

He also believes longer tours are preferable to shorter ones. “People should be encouraged to stay longer,” he says. “I was there 122 days. People who stayed a little more were veterans. You learn from your experience.”

LTC Jeselink calls Kelly “an American hero.” During his deployment “Richard kept the mission in mind and did what the mission required, regardless of the very dangerous and life-threatening distractions around him. Richard is a team p layer, has a great attitude and he will be missed.”

In “Groundhog Day” actor Bill Murray plays a weatherman who becomes ensnared in living the same day over and over. At one point, he seeks to discourage an insurance salesman by asking, “I don’t know where you’re needed, but couldn’t you call in sick?”

Richard Kelly’s tour may have been repetitive and dangerous, but he never called in sick.