Project Hero: SGT Jarred L. Adams, Silver Star Posted by: McQ
on Saturday, July 15, 2006
Today's honoree is SGT Jarred L. Adams, a scout sniper with the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines. What struck me most about his story is his background. This is a young man who graduated from an alternative highschool and immediately upon graduation, joined the Marines. There he excelled. It was like his entire life, to that point, had been about joining this elite group.
As usual, SGT Adams doesn't think he "did anything any other Marine wouldn't do". Probably. But he did it when it counted and he did it with valor:
Sgt. Jarred L. Adams, a U.S. Marine scout sniper, received the Silver Star, the nation's third-highest military combat award, at a ceremony June 10. Lt. Col. Nicholas F. Marano presented Adams, of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, with his combat decoration that day at Camp Al Qa'im, Iraq.
The Silver Star goes to someone who demonstrates "gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States."
"I don't think I did anything any other Marine wouldn't do," Adams was quoted as saying in an online Marine News account posted June 10.
A 2002 graduate of alternative high school Valley Pathways, Adams enlisted July 30, 2001, and shipped out to boot camp in September 2002, said Staff Sgt. Albert Dervaes, at the time a Marine recruiter in Wasilla.
Dervaes said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he remembered Adams.
"He was one of those kids we didn't really have to keep tabs on. Some guys you really gotta baby-sit," Dervaes said.
"He sought us out," the recruiter recalled. "He was not somebody we bumped into at the mall."
Adams enlisted for the infantry and went on to become a scout sniper. It's a tough outfit to get into, Dervaes said. Applicants must score high on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery and on the rifle range too.
Snipers are a very small group, Dervaes said.
Adams, who is serving in Iraq, earned his Silver Star in January 2005 in the city of Husaybah in the Al Anbar province, an insurgent hotbed near the border with Syria, according to the Marines' account online.
Insurgents armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a Humvee carrying Adams and several other Marines, according to the account written by Cpl. Antonio Rosas of the 7th Regimental Combat Team.
The attack killed one Marine and wounded others, including Adams, who was hit with shrapnel and burned by the disabled Humvee. Adams took position and returned fire.
Adams then returned, under fire, to the Humvee, removed the body of the fallen Marine and carried him back through an open intersection "while broadly exposed to enemy fire," Rosas wrote.
Back at headquarters, Adams finally sought treatment for his wounds.
"I am very proud that we can count on Marines like (Sgt.) Adams," Rosas quoted Marano, Adams' commanding officer, as saying. "He is an example of the kind of leaders we have in this battalion."
Sometimes we have a tendency to downplay or ignore the significance of the mottoes developed by our services. "The Marine Corps builds men" is proven daily in the guise of fine young men such as SGT Jarred Adams.
PROJECT HERO is an ongoing attempt to highlight the valor of our military as they fight in both Iraq and Afghanistan. We constantly hear the negative and far to little of the positive and inspiring stories coming out of those countries. This is one small attempt to rectify that. If you know of a story of valor you'd like to see highlighted here (published on Saturday), please contact us. And we'd appreciate your link so we can spread the word.
