Army Sgt. Leonard W. Adams

Died January 24, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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42, of Mooresville, N.C.; assigned to the 105th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade, North Carolina Army National Guard, Asheville, N.C.; died Jan. 24 of non-combat-related injuries at Camp Bucca, Iraq.

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Guardsman dies of apparent heart attack in Iraq

Associated Press

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — A 42-year-old Mooresville man who was almost four months into his tour in Iraq has died after apparently suffering a heart attack, his family said.

Leonard Adams, a former body builder and competitive weightlifter, was assigned to the Army National Guard’s 105th Military Police Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade, out of Asheville, according to the Department of Defense.

Adams had served in the reserves for 22 years and already passed his retirement mark, said Jana Adams, his ex-wife who was married to him for 14 years.

He had never been deployed overseas until Oct. 6, when he went to work at Camp Bucca, a detention center.

“I didn’t want him to go. Nobody wanted him to go,” Jana Adams said. “He said it was time to earn the pay he’d earned all those years.”

Adams, the father of two biological children and one stepdaughter, last spoke to his children Saturday night. He regaled them with stories about unexpected cold weather, a new Subway shop that opened at the camp and his daily workouts. He also spoke to his son about Cub Scouts.

There was no indication of heart problems, Jana Adams said.

Jana Adams said that around midnight overseas — late Sunday afternoon in Mooresville — pains apparently started in his chest. He collapsed and was airlifted to a hospital, she said.

She said she never knew of any heart problems, but he suffered from sleep apnea, a condition in which people stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep. The disorder eventually can lead to congestive heart failure and strokes.

But Adams had started using a machine last summer to help fight the disorder, his ex-wife said. He told the family he hadn’t slept as well in years. He even took the machine with him overseas.

“When they came to my door and they said he had passed away, my first impression was how? He was in a safe place, a prison,” Jana Adams said. “When they said ‘heart attack,’ I said ‘You have the wrong guy.”’

Survivors include his wife, Michelle Adams; a son, Brandon, 10; a daughter Lauren, 14; and a stepdaughter, Taylor, a fourth-grader.