In Memoriam

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.