Marine Lance Cpl. Adam J. Strain

Died August 3, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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20, of Smartsville, Calif.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.; attached to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward); killed Aug. 3 by enemy small-arms fire while conducting combat operations in Ramadi, Iraq.

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California Marine killed in Iraq

The Associated Press

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A Marine whose parents live in North Hero was shot dead by a sniper in the Iraqi city of Ramadi.

Lance Cpl. Adam Strain, 20, of Smartsville, Calif., had wanted to be a Marine since he could play with toy soldiers, his family said.

Strain grew up in California, but regularly traveled to Vermont visiting his mother’s side of the family. Two months ago, his parents moved to a North Hero home that Adam Strain never got to see.

“He was so proud to be a Marine,” said Karen Strain, his mother. “Since 9/11, he said he was going to do this for sure.”

“Terrorism got to him,” said Robert Strain, his father.

“I begged him not to” enlist, but he said, ‘Someone has to stand up and fight, and that’s what I’m going to do,”’ said Karen Strain.

Adam Strain was sent to Iraq seven months ago. He had been accepted to Norwich University, but opted instead to enlist. He wanted to be on the front lines, Robert Strain said.

On Wednesday, he was on foot patrolling an area in Ramadi, an insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad in the Sunni Triangle. The area has become increasingly dangerous, and the military recently sent 1,000 Marines to fight the growing opposition. Earlier that day a roadside bomb killed 14 Marine reservists.

He was due to finish his tour and return to the United States in six weeks. His 21st birthday would have been Sept. 27. He and fiance Barbara Wycliffe would have married next June.

Adam Strain’s family grieved Friday at his grandparents’ New North End home in Burlington. They talked about his love for football. He was a varsity defensive end and a tight end for Nevada Union High School, a regional football powerhouse about an hour northeast of Sacramento. He also played baseball as a pitcher and shortstop.

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Family and friends mourn fallen Marine

BURLINGTON. Vt. — About 100 family members and friends gathered to remember a fallen Marine on Tuesday.

Marine Lance Cpl. Adam Strain was killed by an Iraqi sniper last week.

Karen Strain clutched the folded flag to her chest, grimacing. Her sobs cut through the near-silent room of mourners at the memorial service for her son.

Her husband, Robert Strain, and another son, Steve Tomsic, held and comforted her at the service in Burlington’s Veterans of Foreign Wars post. Barbara Wycliffe, Adam Strain’s fiancee, sat nearby, squeezing Strain’s dog tags, which hung around her neck. Her engagement ring glistened under the lights.

Strain, 20, was the 17th serviceman with Vermont ties to die in support of military operations in Iraq since the conflict began in March 2003. He was shot and killed Aug. 3 while patrolling on foot in Ramadi, Iraq, an insurgent stronghold 70 miles west of Baghdad.

Family members and friends came to share stories and say goodbye to Strain, who grew up in tiny Smartville, Calif. Half of his family lives in Vermont.

Their stories told of a Marine who wanted to be in the military since he was a child, a man jolted by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a loving relative who was determined to instill confidence in a self-conscious cousin and a popular athlete who never cared about popularity.

“Adam was always able to make us feel better about ourselves,” said Cheryl Grodan, his aunt. “I’ll never forget the twinkle in his eye or that devilish grin that made me think that he just got away with something.”

Chad Parker, a cousin from Hyde Park, said he thought of it all as a nightmare. He found out about the death very early Thursday morning. He was still half asleep when told the news and fell back asleep. A short while later, he awoke again: “I thought I had a bad dream.”

When he got up to tell someone about it, he finally realized it was not a dream.

After the speeches, uniformed Marines presented the family with Strain’s Purple Heart.

Later this week, Karen Strain and her husband will bury their son.

— Associated Press