Obituary for
Lt. Thomas Adams

(Transcribed from an NPR Morning Edition broadcast, March 26th, 2003.)

Lieutenant Thomas Mullen Adams is the first US Navy officer killed in the Iraqi conflict. He was aboard one of the two British helicopters that collided over the Persian Gulf last weekend. Six British troops also died. Adams had a long military lineage. He was the descendant of two American presidents. Russell Lewis reports from member station KPBS in San Diego.

Tom Adams was a voracious reader. His aunt, Elizabeth Hanson, said the 27-year old never missed an opportunity to sneak in a few pages.

“Being at, even sometimes big, noisy family parties, and we’d look over and Tom would have his nose stuck in a book. It would be almost comical that he’d kind of tuned us all out.”

And that dedication to his books paid off. In 1993 he graduated from a large suburban San Diego high school as Valedictorian.

His family says he had a lifelong love of aviation, geography and the military. So he followed that passion and entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Lieutenant Tim Fox was a classmate and friend.

“His intellect was very, very deep, and only if you got a chance to talk to him and get to know him, he would gradually reveal it. He wouldn’t try and impress you, or show off and flaunt his intellect, even though it was very impressive as you got to know him.”

Adams was a decorated Naval flight officer, his dad was in the Air Force, and his grandfather was in World War II, and commanded a Navy ship during the Korean War. And he comes from a distinguished American lineage: his family is related to Presidents John Adams, and John Quincy Adams.

There was never any doubt about what Tom Adams’ future would be. Kurt Garlsgaad is his godfather. “I was always thinking that as a career military guy, we’d be seeing him as Admiral Adams at some point, because he loved it so much and this was such a goal of his.”

What many of Adams’ friends remember best about the Navy lieutenant was his light-hearted nature. Tim Fox: “Tom was a guy of infinite laughter, who just always was up for a good chuckle with his friends. And he had a very distinct laugh, that I don’t think any of us will ever forget.” Fox says it was a quick but a loud laugh, and one he wouldn’t even try to duplicate.

Tom Adams’ aunt Elizabeth Hanson says its funny traits like those that they will miss.

“It leaves a hole in all of our hearts that can never be replaced. It’s devastating. Tom’s wit, his humor, his spontaneity, will never be replaced in any of our lives.”

Hanson says she’s proud of her nephew’s military service. She says he died doing what he loved, and that he wanted to make a difference.

For NPR News, I’m Russell Lewis in San Diego.