Brent Adamas Page 2

SFC Brent Adams
April 29, 1965 - December 1, 2005
Page 2
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Norma Wagner
In Honor Of Brent Adams
~~ Unknown Heros ~~
They were boys, in a foreign land
Doing their best to be a grown man
They marched forward when they heard the call
With heads held high, they gave it their all.

They did their best, til they could do no more
They paid the price in this old war
The golden fields, they will never more roam
With open arms, God has welcomed them home.

They were on the brink of their new tomorrows
They leave us now to bear our sorrows
Gone is the life they knew in the past
In our Father's mansion they are free at last.

They wanted to, but they couldn't stay
On golden wings, they flew away.
Their journey is over, their work is done.
And a family weeps, for their fallen son.

They sit on a throne, at our Father's side.
Where angels dance and love abides.
We will miss our heros, with eyes brown, green or blue..
Because in our hearts, they really were our sons too.
Norma Wagner
Pray for our troops!

Pam Adams
SFC Brent A. Adams

THE FOLLOWING ARE A FEW OF THE LETTERS WE RECEIVED FROM
FELLOW SOLDIERS OF BRENTS:

LETTER #1
Hello, I want to tell you how truly sorry I am. Brent was a really
great friend even though we did not know each other all that long. There is
nothing that I wouldn't have done for him and nothing that I won't do
for Marilyn and Daniel. I loved to tease Brent about his taste in music.
I would never see him so happy as when he was listening to some
symphony. I really will miss him a lot. Yesterday we had Brent's memorial
service. I know he would have hated it because it was beautiful and many
tears were shed. I had the entire ceremony video taped and will be
bringing a copy with me when I visit Marilyn. Like I said, it was beautiful.
5 of us spoke about Brent. Normally only 2 are allowed. Another thing
was that one of the soldiers, SGT Zyke, sang a song for Brent. I have
never seen that before at a military memorial. The most amazing thing was
the number of people who came. As part of my job I have gone to every
memorial so far and that was the most people I have ever seen at!
tend. Even I never realized how popular he was around here. Everyone
will miss him very much. After the ceremony we had a cookout in his
honor. We all drank near beer and laughed about the fun times we had with
Brent. It really was nice. I will start to send you some of the pictures
I have. I will tell you what I remember about each one, but please be
patient as it takes about 30 minutes for each picture to be sent. The
Internet here is painfully slow. If you have any questions at all, I will
be more than happy to answer them. Once again I am truly sorry. My and
my families prayers are with you and the rest of Brent's loved ones. If
there is anything at all we can do, please ask.

LETTER #2
The memorial service for your son went well. I have been to a couple of
these over here (unfortunately), and I can honestly say that this one
had the largest crowd by far. You need to know that Brent was well liked
by many people. He had the ability to influence soldiers in a very
unique way.....a way that you rarely see in the military. He would
"develop" his team by working side by side them. He was not
afraid to laugh and joke with his soldiers. The constant theme
throughout the service (brought up by many) was his smile.....the Adams'
"Smile." The mission that he went on that day could have been assigned to any
one of his soldiers. Brent knew that his crew had been working very
hard that week, so he decided to give them a break and take the mission
himself....now that is leadership.....looking after your men and not
giving them a task that you would not do yourself. We can all learn from
his example. You should be receiving a CD of the ceremony shortly. Once a
gain, I am terribly sorry for your loss.

LETTER #3
To all who care about Brent Adams, I want to share a story about my
friend Brent Adams. You have to understand that even after 15 years of
Catholic education that I am still not a very religious person. I never
really believed in the afterlife, but an event happened on the night we
said goodbye to Brent that has me re-thinking my stand on religion and
the afterlife. When a Soldier is lost, the army sends a helicopter to
retrieve the remains from the base the same night. This flight is dubbed
“The Angel Flight.” What happens is all of the friends and fellow
Soldiers of the fallen will gather at the helicopter landing pad to say
their final goodbye. We did the same for Brent, but things did not go
exactly as planned. The Angel flight took 3 attempts to finally get to
our base. We all joked that this was Brent
messing with all of us as he had done the entire tour. I laughed with
everyone else but still did not believe that Brent had anything to do
with it. After the Angel flight had finally arrived, Sgt. Dami and I
headed towards our Hummer. I had parked it in a separate area so we kind of
headed off in the opposite direction as everyone else. As we got about
half way to the Hummer I noticed a 5-Ton truck (The same kind of truck
that Brent was driving when he was lost) just kind of appear out of the
darkness. The truck stopped as I looked. There was no reason for a
truck that size to be in that area so I tugged Sgt. Dami on the shoulder
and told her “Check that out.” When she looked over the truck shut
down and turned off its light. We both just stood and stared for a good
minute or two before the truck started back up, made a right hand turn
and drove away from us back into the darkness. You can argue that the
driver was just lost or a number of other things but the whole event w!
as just too coincidental. As I said I am not a very religious person
but even to me that
was Brent saying goodbye and also letting both of us know that he was
still around and watching out for us. I hope that anyone who reads this
will take the same comfort in this experience that I do.

LETTER #4
Hello again,Here is another picture of Brent. In this one he was
receiving an award. The title of the certificate reads "Hero of the
Rotation." He got it for doing such an outstanding job during our time at NTC
(National Training Center in California). Thanks to his efforts and the
efforts of his team, not one training mission was delayed because of
maintenance issues. I can tell you that this is an almost impossible
achievement. The conditions at NTC play real havoc with all of our
equipment. He really did an outstanding job and we were all very happy that the
command recognized how hard he and his crew worked. The award was
presented here in Iraq by Captain Fisher during a meeting of all of the
senior NCOs in the company. To be honest I think he was a little upset that
the award had his name on it.
He told me just after that it should have been made to the maintenance
section. I told him to be quiet and learn to take a compliment. :-)
He really was very proud of his crew and could never stop talking about
something that they had accomplished as a team. I will continue to send
more pictures. I hope they are helping. I know it is helping me to
remember some of the fun that Brent and I enjoyed so thank you all.

LETTER #5
I wanted to share this picture with you first. I am responsible for the
memorial pictures for all of our lost soldiers. It is always hard and I
never like doing it. Putting this one together was obviously the
hardest on me and others offered to take care of it, but I wanted to make
sure that it was done right. I think it is a great picture of Brent but
there is a little secret about the picture. If you noticed on
Brent's wrist there is his Pittsburgh Pride Bracelet. I can't tell you
how many time he was told to take that bracelet off by the command
here. To be honest, it really is against regulations to wear a
non-religious bracelet. It was the one order he refused to follow so I made sure
that it was in his final picture. I did it for Brent but also thought it
would bring a smile to my face every time that I looked at it. It
does and I hope it does the same for all of you. I will send more
pictures tomorrow.
It was both my pleasure and honor to be part of Brent’s service.
Brent always liked to make things fun. I will treasure the memories of the
fun times I had with Brent. Long into my retirement years I will be
telling the stories of the goofy things we did. I will surely miss my
friend.

LETTER #6
My thoughts and heart are with you and your family in this time of
sorrow. I served with Brent while in Company A, 2/110th Infantry, Ford
City. I joined the unit upon discharge from the USMC in 1992. Brent was a
well-liked and respected soldier. I want to extend my gratitude to you
and your family for Brent’s service and let it be known that he is not
forgotten outside of your family circle. “Thank You” for his
service. Our freedoms are founded and maintained through such dedicated
service. God Bless Brent and your family.

LETTER #7
Here is another picture of Brent with Sgt. Bobby Cumpston. I don't know
what the conversation was about, but what I love about the picture is
the concern you can see on Brent's face. When someone, anyone, had a
problem it instantly became Brent's personal mission to help fix whatever
was wrong. No matter how large or small the problem, Brent always had
that same look of concern on his face when talking about the situation.
If Brent had a selfish side at all, I think it was he never really
wanted help from anyone. He would drive me crazy because he would help me
get some things done but when I offered to help him out, he would tell
me not to worry about
it. I mean the guy could be trying to construct a skyscraper with
nothing more than a hammer and he wouldn't willingly accept help. :-)
Eventually I learned to stop offering help and just jump in and lend a
hand. When he realized I was helping he would always stop, put his
hands on his him and give me that look of his when he was trying not to
smile. I would look at him and give some sort of remark like... Are you
going to just stand there?One day he was loading a truck full of
equipment. He was loading the truck for a mission that was leaving in a convoy
early in the morning. It was starting to get late and I was just
getting done work. He knew I was also going on a mission early the next
morning and got seriously mad at me when I started to help him. He kept
telling me that he could get it done and that I needed to get some sleep. I
told him that I already had a mother and if he wanted the job he would
have to go call her. I said but before you do, I wish you would help me
get this truck loaded. :-)His argument was that he could sleep in so it
was no big deal. Brent never slept in. He was out of the room b!
y 8am no matter what was going on that day. I didn't say anything else
and continued to load the truck. Brent gave me a dirty look and than we
loaded a few more things. He said that was everything and we both
headed towards the room. The next morning I went by the truck and there had
to be twice the amount of stuff on it as when he said "That's
Everything."
The sneak waited for me to fall asleep and than went back down to
finish loading the truck himself. I was so mad at him that I wanted to
unload the truck just to get back at him for tricking me like that. :-)When
I finally saw him later that day he just started walking in the
opposite direction laughing like a clown. He got me good that day. :-) I will
be sending more tomorrow. I hope everyone is sleeping well. Take care.

LETTER #8
I am very much aware of the events that happened yesterday. I wanted so
very much to give you a warning, but we are limited in our ability to
share details before families are notified. Yesterday, SGT Adams was
driving a truck on a very dangerous road. I had traveled on this very road
(past the very same spot) less than an hour earlier. He volunteered for
the mission to go out and help with an Iraqi army camp that was being
developed. The mission went well until the drive back. His convoy was
attacked by a rocket...in fact, his very truck was struck. The truck
flipped over after impact. SGT Adams survived the attack. Medics rushed to
the scene and tried
very hard to stabilize him. His upper pelvis was shattered, and he was
bleeding extensively. Unfortunately, he died of wounds on the way to
the aid station. We were all stunned. He was very well liked by all here.
I had personally talked with him on numerous occasions about
Sally...and you. Everytime I passed hi m, I called him "cousin" because of the
special relationship you two had. Last night, as his
body was being carried out to the helicopter (we call it the "Angel"
flight...flight of the dead back to the States), we all formed a line of
respect and saluted with tears running down our faces as he was being
carried to the helicopter. All of us were a mess. I want to let you know
that I am terribly sorry for what happened. I told you that I would
look after him, and I feel as if I did not do a good enough
job. The company is having a memorial service on Monday for him. I will
be there, and I will be sure to get a program for Sally. I feel
terrible....and wish I could have told you sooner. Please tell Sally that he
died doing a very important job in a very dangerous place. He
volunteered for the mission, and his brave duty as a soldier was performed with
the utmost sacrifice. A number of the soldiers here are taking it very
hard...including myself. We will continue to do our jobs in his honor.

LETTER #9
I first want to tell you how very sorry I am. I can't begin to imagine
what you and Daniel are going through right now. Brent was such a great
guy. really don't know what to say. I still really can't believe that
he is gone.As you know Brent and I have become very close friends in a
short period of time. We worked in separate parts of the base but
roommates and we got together for lunch and dinner just about every day.
After dinner we would usually watch a movie or sit around listening to
music and talk about different things.I would always get on his case about
his choice in music. It was just a few days ago that he told me he had
season tickets to the symphony. I
asked him if he was kidding and he told me no. He said he loved to go
drink beer at intermission. He said that everyone else was drinking some
sophisticated drink and would look at him sort of strange because he
was drinking beer. :-)What I loved most about Brent was how simple things
would make him so happy.A package from you was enough to put a huge
smile on his face for days no matter how tired or overworked he was. He
loved to share the Tastykakes with me because he knew that I loved them
almost as much as he did. And the stuff you would send from Daniel... I
am just surprised that they held up by the time everyone was done
looking at them. He was so proud of the artwork and other things that you
would send.A funny story... A couple of days ago one of the other guys
around here gave me a ton of music for my computer. Brent called me on
the radio a dozen times and stopped by my office twice just
to see if I had finished transferring all of the music so he could look
through it. After it was done he stopped by and spent about 3 hours
picking out different songs. You would have thought that every song was
his all time favorite by his reaction. He would look and go "oh... Oh...
this song is great!" and than he would play it. This lasted about 3
nights. :-)I did not see much of Brent the last 2 nights. He
spent most of the time after chow down in his office. He wanted to get
his Christmas shopping done. I have the newsletter due so I was busy in
my office. The night before he was lost, I got back to the room around
11. He was not there so I headed over to his office to check on him. He
was sitting in his chair and had music blasting as loud as it could be
played. I just had to laugh. Did he always love music so much? He was
kind of celebrating getting all of his shopping done. :-)His last
morning he came into my office around 10am. He wanted to yell at me "Guess
what my dad and mom saw on the web-site today?" He was "mad" about some
pictures that I put on the web-site of him from Thanksgiving. This was
after the whole Newsletter picture that you saw. :-)He yelled at me for
a few minutes than I told him it was his fault that he didn't look good
in pictures. He told me that he knows he doesn't look good in pictures
but that was no reason for me to use them. Most of our conversa!
tions were like that. We spent a lot of time poking fun at each
other.I didn't go to lunch with him that day. I was busy and needed to get
some things done. I did see him just after he got into the truck before
he left. I asked him where he was going and he told me. I asked him why
he was going and he said that he needed to give his guys a break.
There have been a lot of missions lately and his section was working a
lot harder than normal to help get the missions done.He than asked me
to make sure a key got to SGT Jones that he had forgotten to give her.
So I took the key and shook his hand. I told him to be careful and
watched him drive off. He spoke about you and Daniel every day. I know he
couldn't wait to get home and be with the both of you. I asked him one
time if he was going to do a tour in Afghanistan with me when this was
done. He told me "not on your life." He wanted to get home to his family
and would never leave them again.I have some things that Brent wanted
you and Daniel to have. If it is alright with you I would like to
deliver them in person when I am home on leave during the week of Christmas.
I know it will be a very rough time you and understand completely if
you would rather I didn't. I just want to do what I know Brent would have
done for me.
Once again I am very sorry. I wish there was something I could say that
would help. Please convey my condolences to his parents and the rest of
his family. If you would like to talk some more or if there is anything
I can do, please, please let me know.

Nov 3, 2007
dallas campeau
im am 26 years old and am sorry for your lost i am
preparing to move out to iraq and i will be serving in that ao and they
will pay