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 email update to his parents. He agreed to share some of his messages over the next couple of weeks.
We’ve passed the 100-day mark; and as hectic as it feels, it also seems as though we’ve settled into a sustainable pace. … Most everyone works six to seven days a week. We make an honest effort to give the Marines at least half a day off on Sunday. In many cases, the leaders have to tell them to leave work.
Our focus on roads hasn’t changed. … There is plenty for us to do just improving the existing roads by adding gravel. We have also been the target of Improvised Explosive Devices. Unfortunately our work is predictable; we go out each night to work sections of road. They know where we leave off and where we’ll pick up the next night, so we’re targeted. Fortunately the vehicles have withstood the IED strikes. We’ve had some personnel with minor concussions, but that’s it. In many cases they use very simple electrical devices which require the ‘victim’ to complete a circuit, usually by means of a pressure activated switch. The battery powered devices set off a blasting cap that is embedded in homemade explosives. It is very low tech and very low cost but also effective. We use mine rollers on the front of our vehicles to try and counter them and then try to maintain the track of the vehicle in the lead. The insurgents try to counter the mine rollers by offsetting the charge from the location of the pressure device. This is the back and forth deadly game we play.
On the flip side, we can also predict where the enemy will attempt to plant IEDs. I have … watched a fuzzy, aerial night-vision video of a hellfire missile strike on an insurgent attempting to plant a new IED in the road next to the same location where we struck one the day before. Low tech meet high tech.
… I have been stationed on Okinawa since the summer of 2006. I deployed to Iraq Sept. 2006. From July of 2008 to Dec. of 2010 I will have spent about 17 months deployed to Afghanistan, 4-5 months deployed for training, 7 months home, but in a training cycle and about one month worth of leave. I have strained my relationship with my wife, who has been incredibly understanding through it all. I have missed critical time with my teenage daughter and all of my son’s college years. I am tired, but there are a lot of Marines and Sailors counting on me to make the right call; and I cannot let them down. … Some of them are missing more, like the birth of children or the passing of dear relatives.
I don’t think about dying much. I think everyone out here realizes it is a possibility, but we don’t focus on it. I focus more on making sure that everyone lives.
Since I’ve been out here, I had a great friend die in a hiking accident. That was devastating for me. … It made me realize it could happen at any time, any place. He was doing what he loved to do, after 30 plus years serving his nation in the military. … I’ll be content with the simple things: a hike in the Rockies, a long hot shower, a paved road, no dust storms, time with family. I am halfway there.
~ Lieutenant Colonel Ted Adams, USMC
