Front lines - Afghanistan
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Raised in the Mission Valley, Lieutenant Colonel Ted Adams serves in the United States Marine Corps. Adams is the son of Dee and C.W. Adams of Polson and is serving his second tour of Afghanistan in the 9th Engineer Support Battalion of 3rd Marine Logistics.
A 1983 graduate of Polson High School, Adams attended the University of Montana for a year before joining the Marine reserve in 1985. He earned a BA in education and accepted a commission as an officer in 1992.
Every so often Adams sends an e-mail update to his parents.
This e-mail is especially poignant in light of the IED that wounded Lance Corporal Tomy Parker of Ronan.
Improvised Explosive Devices are the bane of my existence. … We’ve been hit by more than 10 IEDs in the last couple of weeks. During my last convoy, we hit one on the way and one on the way back. Needless to say I am continuing my campaign to convince as many leaders as possible that roads are the key to our success.
… The bottom line is everyone ‘outside the wire’ who … patrols the road is glad that my engineers with our armored heavy equipment improved the road. The locals are happy because something finally got done on their road. The infantry is happy because they can more readily spot IEDs. IED frequency continues to drop dramatically on the roads we rebuild.
I think we all have thoughts that our truck might be the next one to strike an IED. … The equipment does pretty good. So far, most personnel involved in IEDs have minor injuries, bruised legs, ringing in the ears and/or headaches. I pray that’s as bad as it gets.
My air conditioning stopped working during a long convoy the other day. Understand that temperatures are still in the 90s, and we’re traveling in vehicles with windows that don’t roll down. It gets a little claustrophobic after a while. It is like being in a rolling sauna. I went to change a battery out on one of our radios and found that the epoxy holding it together had melted in the heat. That’s how I was feeling at the end of the day; my batteries were dead, too.
Aside from the heroes out here, there are also heroes at home. We’ve had a number of Marines who have missed the birth of their sons and daughters; they miss birthdays, anniversaries, school plays, you name it. This is the second anniversary in a row I’ve missed. The spouses somehow power through and hold it together, at least most do.
We’ve also had the ‘Dear John’ letters. It is worst when we hear the proverbial, “I didn’t know it was going to be this hard.” No seasoned spouse and definitely no Marine wants to hear that. …
In the end, our spouses develop into independent, strong, organized, home-front warriors who deal with all the challenges of home life while we’re gone. …
We have about two months left. Sixty days, but I am not counting. I find that takes away from my focus. I haven’t had a day off yet, but why start now? I want the battalion to maintain as much momentum as possible right up until we turn over with our replacements. I am hoping the units we support will get so used to the type of support we’re providing that they’ll demand it of our replacements.
~Lieutenant Colonel Ted Adams, USMC
