#01 03/21/03 Childers, Therrel Shane 2nd Lieutenant 30 U.S. Marine 1st Bat., 5th Marine Reg., 1st Mar. Div. Hostile
#100 04/02/03 Adamouski, James Francis Captain 29 U.S. Army 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment Non-hostile - helicopter
http://icasualties.org/...
In your comments, go to icasualties.org and pick a number, any number and tell us about these tragedies. We need to remember why we need to impeach this asshole in 2006.
Marine First Lieutenant Therrel Shane Childers, a member
of The Citadel Class of 2001, died in combat on March 21st in Iraq. He was 30 and reportedly the first American casualty of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
At the time of his death, he was a second lieutenant. The U.S. Marine Corps promoted him to the rank of first lieutenant posthumously. Lieutenant Childers attended The Citadel as an active duty Marine, attending classes as a day student in the MECEP program. MECEP stands for Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program.
Childers, a native of Harrison County, Miss., was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, in Camp Pendleton, Calif.
News organizations covering the war cite Childers as the first American serviceman to die in the war. He was leading a platoon that was capturing the Ramalla oil fields when he was shot in the stomach and died on March 21st.
While at The Citadel, Childers was a French major, Dean's List student and active in the Marine Raiders.
"As a MECEP, Therrel Childers served as an excellent role model for our cadets," said Citadel President Maj. Gen. John S. Grinalds, USMC retired. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this time."
The Citadel's MECEP program is the nation's oldest and largest. It was conceived as an extension of Navy ROTC in 1973 to allow promising Marines the chance to complete their college education while in service. More than 200 Marine officers have graduated from the program.
During a speech before the college Tuesday, April 1, Grinalds said:
"French professor, Colonel Guy Toubiana, tells one of the many stories about Lt. Childers that speaks to his character. He was attending The Citadel's Summer in France program and had gone with some friends to the beach on a free afternoon.
"As the group was returning on the bus, two men began harassing two English women. Everyone on the bus watched except Lt. Childers who intervened and demanded that they leave the women alone," Grinalds said. "Even after one of the men pulled a knife, Lt. Childers did not back down. The men then must have decided that they were not prepared for that kind of trouble and returned to their seats.
"That courage and standing up for others who are weaker was a foretelling of Lt. Childers' bravery that cost him his life," Grinalds said. "He gave his country everything he had...and his courage and leadership is an inspiration to us all."
http://citadel.edu/...
POWELL, Wyo. - In death, Therrel Shane Childers achieved the rank that was his next goal in life: as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Hundreds of people, including many veterans and young men and women in uniform, attended the brief but emotional funeral service Tuesday for Childers, a Marine who was among the first American combat casualties in the war in Iraq.
Childers, 30, was remembered as courageous and confident, a man who took the Marines and his responsibilities as a platoon leader as more than just a job.
As the threat of war neared, "his concerns were for his men," Cmdr. Paul Moore, a retired Navy chaplain, told the mourners. "He emanated a courageous sense about him, that nothing scared him."
Childers, a veteran of the 1991 Gulf War, died March 21 after being shot in the abdomen in an assault on a pumping station in Iraq. Known as Shane, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment based at Camp Pendleton, Calif. An enlisted Marine who won a commission as a second lieutenant, he was promoted posthumously to first lieutenant.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal directed that flags at state buildings be lowered to half-staff Tuesday in honor of Childers, who wasn't from this wind-swept northern Wyoming town but often visited his parents Joseph and Judy Childers here and found peace hiking or helping on the family farm.
"The Childers are family and so is he. That's the way a lot of us feel," said Caroline Kost, a school secretary.
Residents waving flags lined the town's main street as a hearse carried Childers' body to the college gym where there funeral was held. Some Northwest College students cut class to wave flags and offer their condolences. Firefighters and ambulance drivers stood along the route, hats in hand.
Dan and Dawn LaPierre, who quietly held flags near the funeral home, kept their 8-year-old son Jarred out of school Tuesday.
"It's about teaching values and respect," said Dan LaPierre, who drove all night from Washington state where he was on a business trip. "We're here to show support for the family and our troops, our country."
Friends and relatives say Childers was a born leader, serious and focused, whose life revolved around being a Marine.
"His idea of fun was skiing, backpacking, anything to keep in shape for the Marines," said Army Sgt. Richard Brown, Childers' brother-in-law.
Retired Master Sgt. Steve Whitten, who served with Childers and said he regarded him as a son, said his wife often ribbed Childers about being single. But Childers had a one-track mind.
"He had plenty of girls after him," he said. But "when it came to relationships, Shane was married to the Marine Corps."
Childers graduated from the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program at The Citadel in South Carolina two years ago, and fulfilled a promise to get his college degree. He was on course to earn the silver bar of a first lieutenant later this year, Whitten said.
Childers spent time with Whitten's family in California last November, and the two men discussed the possibility of war.
"He knew the chances were pretty darn good," he said. "But I think he was more confident than worried. He felt he could handle any situation."
http://www.signonsandiego.com/...
War in Iraq Claims Life of Lee High Grad
Army Capt. James Adamouski is first war fatality from Fairfax County
By Mike Salmon
April 9, 2003
Jimmy Adamouski's leadership qualities are what Laura Griffith felt would lift her brother to the Oval Office one day. That opportunity will never happen as U.S. Army Capt. James Adamouski became the victim of a helicopter crash in Iraq on Wednesday, April 2. The loss left the Springfield family in mourning.
"He had this quality, this aura, Griffith said. "He would have been the first Polish-Catholic president."
Adamouski's determination to graduate from West Point was an early sign of those leadership qualities. A 1991 graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, he was president of the senior class, according to his father Francis J. Adamouski Jr.
An only son, James Adamouski had three sisters. In addition to Laura, there was Karen Marion, 33, and Jaclyn, 24.
"They all went to him with their problems. Jimmy was always the leader," Francis Adamouski said.
ACCORDING TO INFORMATION released by the Department of Defense, Adamouski was one of six U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, who were on the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter which crashed in central Iraq.
The Adamouski family got word of the accident on Thursday, April 3 and immediately drove to Georgia, where the 3rd Aviation Regiment is based.
Francis Adamouski looked at his son's determination and attitude as potential lessons for the younger generation. "I think the story of his life would be a great help to the younger generation," he said.
This wasn't the first time that James Adamouski was in harm's way. He went to Bosnia three times and Albania once. But his mother Judith Adamouski felt uneasy about the deployment to Iraq. "This deployment bothered me a lot, I didn't have good vibes," she said.
When she expressed concern to her son, he said, "I'll fly low and I'll fly fast."
ADAMOUSKI, 29, had been married seven months to the former Meighan Lacey, a fellow graduate of Lee High School. Although the two did not know each other well at Lee, Griffith felt the circumstances behind their relationship were unique. Griffith met Meighan while working at Outback Steakhouse in Springfield and introduced the two.
"They didn't know each other," Griffith said. "I was the one who introduced them. We all went out. Afterward she said 'I'm going to be Mrs. James Adamouski.'"
At Lee, Adamouski loved soccer but played football one year for the Lancers as the kicker. Mary Schaefer, a teacher at Lee for the past 22 years, remembers Adamouski. She taught earth science at the time and when the class broke into lab groups, he was a natural leader.
"He would take charge of them, he always did it in a very pleasant way," she said.
As far as a future president of the United States, Schaefer thought that was possible as well.
"That's not far-fetched at all," she said. "He did have the potential of being president. It was a tragic loss. We have truly lost someone that might have done wonderful things for our country."
All of his school years, James Adamouski was obsessed with perfect attendance, Griffith remembered. Once, while a seventh grader at Key Middle School, he missed the bus and called a cab. When they arrived at school, James Adamouski realized he did not have enough money, but the cab driver understood.
"Typical Jimmy," said Griffith, of her brother's persistence.
James Adamouski planned on completing his master's in business administration and had been selected to teach economics at West Point.
When the Army is through investigating the crash, the family will have a service at The Church of Nativity in Burke the evening prior to a burial at Arlington National Cemetery.
Griffith suffers from multiple sclerosis and Meighan Adamouski requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in her husband's name to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/...
James Adamouski
Adamouski, James Francis, Capt., USA Virginia Captain Adamouski died Wednesday, April 2, 2003 in Iraq, age 29 years. Surviving is his wife Meighan Adamouski, his parents; Frank and Judy Adamouski; three sisters: Laura Griffith, Karen Marion and Jaclyn Adamouski. The family will receive friends on Wednesday April 23, 2003 from 6-10 P.M. at Church of the Nativity, 6400 Nativity Lane, Burke, VA, 22015 with a Knights of Columbus overnight Vigil and a Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday, April 24, 2003 at 12:30 P.M. A Service of Remembrance will be held at Ft. Myer Memorial Chapel at 3:30 P.M. with interment to follow with Full Honors at Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family request that memorial contributions be made in the name of Capt. James Adamouski to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, 2104 Laburnum Ave., Richmond, VA. 23227. Ambrose Funeral Home 1200 Garfield Ave..
http://www.legacy.com/...