Spanish Fork, Utah, US
U.S. Army
PFC, Apache helicopter mechanic, Katterbach, Germany
5/28/2011, Katterbach, Germany
My son Adam was an amazing man. He played the trumpet and spoke, wrote, and read fluent Japanese. That was his passion, he loved foreign languages. He was going to start taking more classes to learn other languages. He was in Japanese in high school, but taught himself 90% of it because he could not wait for the next lesson to begin. By the time he was a senior in high school he was helping the teacher teach the students. Another class he loved and would kill me if I told anyone this was home economics. He loved to cook. He was a great cook. I think the only thing I didn’t like were his dang Japanese cookies that he made. He would always make enough to take to school and share with his friends. At his funeral it was funny because all his friends that spoke talked about the awful Japanese cookies except one who was all ” I don’t know what any of you are talking about I loved those cookies”.
During his last year of school he came to us and told us that he wanted to join the Army. Right then we were already more proud of him then we could ever say. We knew what that meant as did he. But he loved people and helping. He was also extremely smart and knew that was a great way to do the things he wanted. He also met the love of his life in high school. They were planning on getting engaged next month when he would be home for 2 months. He sent me the ring almost a year ago, and was so excited he didn’t keep it a secret from her for long. I gave it to her 3 days before his funeral so she could wear it. They had their wedding planned out right down to the cake. She also got him a wedding band that she laid on his chest. It broke my heart even more to realize that the life we had planned for them and the one they had planned for themselves would never happen.
A few weeks after graduation he left for boot camp both excited and nervous. Of course the first letter we received from him talked about how bad he hated the boots, but how much he loved shooting a gun! He was pretty good at it and was so excited about it that he sent me his marksmanship paper! He didn’t get to come home after basic because he broke his ankle in basic and was held back 4 weeks, so he graduated with the class behind his and went straight to AIT to be with his class. The job he chose was an Apache helicopter repair job. He was in love with school finally!!! High school was so hard for him because he was always so bored, and already knew everything they were trying to teach him. I think this is why he liked language so much. But finally he was being taught and his brain was being fed. He talked about how much he loved it and even once asked me if I thought he would be good at it. He learned his job and was crazy good at it according to his Sergeant.
After AIT it was Christmas he came home for 2 weeks and that is the last time we saw him. He was so proud of his uniform and showed us all pushups and shoveled snow at a crazy speed, we got 4 feet this last year. We had a huge Christmas with friends and family and tons of food he had such a good time. It’s sad to me. I wish he and his fiancé had gotten married. You know he didn’t even have his driver’s license.
Any way after Christmas he was stationed in Germany where he got to do his job and loved it. After that he started getting very home sick. We would Skype and text and talk as much as possible, but you know how busy they get. So then to feel closer to home he started staying up real late to Skype his fiancé and talk to her. He was worried that with him being so far away she would resent him and find someone new. Of course that never happened.
We miss Adam. Thank you giving us this gift of his portrait. We will treasure it.