[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 30, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5122-S5123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO MARCUS ADAMS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to SPC 
Marcus Adams. Adams hails from Magoffin County, KY, and proudly served 
his country on a tour of duty in Iraq.
  Adams graduated from Magoffin County High School, and after his 
freshman year in college he decided to enlist in the U.S. Army. Because 
of the strong military tradition in his family--his father, 
grandfather, and two uncles all served--he felt it was an easy decision 
to carry on that legacy.
  After completing his basic training and advanced individual combat 
training, Adams was assigned to the 555th Engineer Brigade. In 
September of 2008, he and his brigade were sent to Balad, Iraq, where 
they would remain for the duration of their yearlong tour of duty.
  In Iraq, Adams was responsible for all of his brigade's technology. 
Managing the computer networks, servers, and radios were tasks that all 
fell under his purview.
  Adams is now happily back in his old Kentucky home with his wife 
Ash'leigh and his son Alistair and will soon be joined by his first 
daughter Hermione.
  For his honorable service to this country, he is well deserving of 
praise from this body. Therefore, I ask that my U.S. Senate colleagues 
join me in honoring SPC Marcus Adams.
  The Salyersville Independent recently published an article detailing 
Adams' service in Iraq. I ask unanimous consent that the full article 
be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

           [From the Salyersville Independent, July 3, 2014]

                      Quick Decision Leads to Iraq

                           (By Heather Oney)

       One ``drop of the hat'' decision took Marcus Adams all the 
     way to Iraq.
       Adams, a graduate of Magoffin County High School, was 19 
     years old and had completed one year of college when he came 
     in one afternoon in February 2007 and told his wife, 
     Ash'leigh Nicole Prince Adams, he had joined the Army.

[[Page S5123]]

       ``There were no objections,'' Adams laughed. ``She stayed 
     in college at Morehead and I went to basic training.''
       Adams said given his family's history, with his dad, 
     grandfather and two uncles serving in the military, it was a 
     no-brainer.
       ``With 9/11, I felt because everyone else in my family had 
     served, I felt the responsibility to at least do a minimum 
     tour,'' Adams said. ``I didn't feel productive in college and 
     the Army could give me steady employment and healthcare.''
       Adams finished his basic training at Fort Jackson, South 
     Carolina, then his Advanced Individual Training (AIT) at Fort 
     Gordon, Georgia. He was then assigned to the 555th Engineer 
     Brigade, based out of Fort Lewis, Washington.
       His primary job with the brigade, which he stayed in all 
     through his enlistment, was to be the computer guy, Adams 
     said. He was responsible for the computer networks, servers, 
     radios--any technology--the engineers needed.
       In September 2008, only seven years after 9/11, Adams and 
     his brigade were sent to Balad, Iraq, where the team would 
     stay a year.
       ``The War in the Middle East we have been engaged in for 
     the past 10-plus years is open-ended by its very nature,'' 
     Adams said. ``In Vietnam, we had an actual bad guy, in 
     uniform and everything. In Iraq and Afghanistan, when the 
     enemy is terror, who is that? There's no way to define 
     victory.''
       Despite recent developments in Iraq, Adams said, ``I'm 
     proud of the work we did. Less than 1 percent of U.S. 
     Americans ever serve in any capacity. The importance of 
     serving and the things I got from it turned me into the 
     person I am.''
       Adams said the majority of the time he remained on base, 
     which was a former Iraqi Army base where temperatures got up 
     to 130 degrees in the day.
       ``It's hard to express how hot that is,'' Adams remembered.
       He had one mission off-base, where he said he saw how big 
     the gap was between the poor and the rich in Iraq.
       ``Here, the poorest people get food stamps and aid,'' Adams 
     said. ``I've seen Iraqi men walking around bare naked, 
     picking up garbage, and the guys working with us are wearing 
     suits and eating lobster. We saw people working at a dump in 
     a junk-yard, building shelters out of it.''
       While their truck was armored with additional plates, he 
     said a man threw a Russian RKG-3 anti-tank grenade between 
     the truck and the plate, causing damage to the truck, but no 
     one was hurt.
       At one point Adams and a few other men received four-day 
     passes and they went to Doha, Qatar, to unwind. Located on 
     the Persian Gulf, Qatar is more of a tourist country, with 
     only 30 percent of the people in the country at any given 
     time actually being residents. Since they were there during 
     Ramadan, when it is illegal to be caught eating or drinking 
     during the daylight hours, Adams said they had to be careful 
     to stay hydrated. They would pull the curtains on the bus 
     they were traveling on and drank anyway in order to not 
     dehydrate in the well over 100-degree temperatures.
       In September 2009, he came back to the states, getting to 
     travel all around the country. He worked in Fort Irwin, 
     California, twice, Fort Campbell, Kentucky and Yakima 
     Training Center, Washington.
       The hardest part, he said, was reintegrating with his wife.
       ``It's weird when you leave that long when you've been the 
     head of the household,'' Adams said. ``You have to leave and 
     hand it all over to her--the bills and all the decisions--and 
     when you come back, you try to come back in the same role, 
     but she's like, I've got this.''
       Adams said for the first month back, all the soldiers had 
     to report for a daily briefing set up to help them with the 
     reintegration process, but he saw many dealing with 
     infidelity issues when they returned, as well as Post-
     Traumatic Stress Disorder.
       ``People can get really messed up and they used to just 
     tell us, Suck it up and deal with it,' but I think they are 
     seeing now that's not the best policy.''
       Thankfully, for him, he said they never had to deal with 
     either issue.
       He could have gone to Afghanistan for another tour, 
     however, his contract would have had to be extended past the 
     usual six years. Since he was now the father of one, he took 
     the Army's offer for an early honorable discharge, leaving 
     three months early to be with his son. He was ranked as a 
     Specialist, under the E4 pay grade.
       Marcus and Ash'leigh Adams have one son, Alistair Dean 
     Adams, who is three years old, and one daughter on the way 
     (at press time), Hermione Sue Adams.

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