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<em>"Jock" Adams</em> was born in Bangor, Maine, 8 September 1917, the middle child and only son of a close-knit and loving family. By the time he graduated from high school he was both president of the senior class and captain of the football team.</p>
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A strong, early influence on Jock’s life was his high school football coach, Walter F. Ulmer. It was he who encouraged Jock to apply to the Military Academy.</p>
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At West Point, Jock quickly established a reputation for academic and tactical competence, mental and physical toughness, and an indomitable spirit. He loved football and, despite his five foot eight inch height and 150 pound weight, played the game like a tiger for all four years—Plebe team and B Squad—against six-foot, 200 pounders</p>
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Thrown together in the same room on the first day of Beast Barracks, Jock and his two roommates remained together all four years, sharing their extremely close friendship through the years after graduation until death interfered.</p>
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While at the Academy, Jock first became interested in the new parachute units then being formed. He volunteered many times for Airborne before being assigned to Fort Benning for parachute training late in 1942. Jock got his airborne wings and was assigned to the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, then on maneuvers at Camp McCall, North Carolina. Soon after, he was promoted to captain and took over “A” Company, which he led with pride for the next several years.</p>
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After the maneuvers the regiment deployed to Port Stewart in Ireland, and from there, to Nottingham, England, in preparation for D-Day.</p>
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Jock jumped into Normandy on D-Day, before the first troops landed on Omaha Beach. A brave and valiant leader, Jock was wounded during this operation but was able to rejoin his company. Jock also jumped into Holland, near Nijmegen, and was wounded twice more, as he also was during the Battle of the Bulge. Two of these wounds required major hospitalization. Jock almost lost his leg to a post-infection and had residual problems that were to haunt him for the rest of his life. However, he did rejoin the regiment for the Battle of Ardennes and the Rhineland.</p>
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When the war ended, the 508th was in a mashalling area in Soissons, France, just outside Paris, preparing either to jump to rescue POWs or to go to Berlin. Instead, the regiment moved to Frankfurt, Germany. When the 82nd returned stateside, the 508th remained as General Eisenhower’s Honor Guard.</p>
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Jock became executive and then commander of the 1st Battalion. With two Silver Stars and two Bronze Stars for valor, as well as two Purple Hearts and the Combat Infantry Badge, Jock returned wearing both the Belgian and French Fouragerres, the Presidential Unit Citation, and the Orange Lanyard of the Order of Willem of Orde, which was personally presented by the Queen of Holland.</p>
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Jock remained in Europe until the 508th redeployed. Soon after, he brought his wife Ruth over from Scotland. He had met and married her after the war.</p>
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Jock’s first assignment in the U. S. was with the Organized Reserves in Northern Kentucky, and he and Ruth spent a few months living in Cincinnati. They moved on to Fort Benning, where after the Advanced Course, Jock headed the airborne battalion.</p>
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During this time, Jock volunteered for “Training Camp #1" which was then a prototype for Special Forces training. This concept later evolved into the Ranger/Airborne Program. As a consequence, Jock spent the following two years on maneuvers throughout the United States.</p>
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Jock’s next tour was in Korea, as advisor to a ROK regiment, and Jock learned to read, write and speak Korean.</p>
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On his return to the States, Jock was again assigned to Fort Benning; this time as an instructor at the Infantry School, and later, as head of the Department of Non-Resident Instruction.</p>
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A tour in Alaska with the 9th Infantry Regiment followed. Jock was in charge of raising the first 49-star flag in Sitka when Alaska became a state on 4 July 1959. He loved the outdoors and the beauty of the new state, and despite problems with his legs caused by the WWII wounds, he completed more than 100 miles on skis with the regiment.</p>
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Jock and Ruth had a son, Jonathan E. Adams, III, at Fort Benning, and their daughter, Catherine Elizabeth, was born in Alaska.</p>
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Jock was next assigned to Governor’s Island in New York Harbor. The family, complete with standard Schnauzer, drove the entire way (8,700 miles in seven weeks), towing a 15-foot camping trailer down the Alaska highway.</p>
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Jock retired, for medical reasons, during his assignment on Governor’s Island. By then walking had become a major problem.</p>
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The family returned to Columbus, Georgia, and Jock earned a master’s in Mathematics from Duke. They then moved to Camp Hill, where Jock became a professor of Mathematics at the newly-established Harrisburg Area Community College. He was to teach there for the next 18 years.</p>
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Jock retired again in 1983, when walking had become almost impossible.</p>
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Jock returned to his Alma Mater for the last time for his 40th reunion. Though in great pain, he proudly struggled to march across the Plain with his classmates.</p>
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During the years when Jock was teaching, he indulged in his love of travel. Every summer he and the family saw much of Europe, North Africa and Turkey. Even in the last year of his life, Jock visited his inlaws in Scotland and joined his comrades of the 508th at a reunion in Omaha, Nebraska.</p>
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A week after Jock returned from this, his last trip, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. He died 11 days later, on his wedding anniversary, and was interred at Indiantown Gap Military Cemetery.</p>
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Jock left behind his widow Ruth; son Ted, a CPA with Ray Chem and his wife; two grandchildren, Natalie Marie and Emily Ruth; his daughter Catherine, a clinical pharmacist in Newport News and her husband, and two grandchildren, Madeline Langston and Alexandra Lesell.</p>
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Throughout his life, Jock epitomized all that is best—by any definition—of an officer. Jock was a quiet man, with a twinkle in his eye, and a delicious sense of humor...“straight arrow all the way.” Always a hard and conscientious worker, he was a beloved leader, a loyal friend, a loving husband, and a devoted and adoring father and grandfather.</p>
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What better legacy?</p>