Dustin Adkins laid to rest

HENDERSON - Pomp, pageantry and a grateful nation had to patiently wait in a parking lot on a cloudy Tuesday, while emotional family, friends and neighbors said goodbye to Sgt. Dustin Adkins.

Old Friendship Baptist Church, designed to hold about 150, was filled to the walls 45 minutes before services began for the 22-year-old Finger native. Adkins was killed earlier this month in a helicopter crash in Iraq, where he was on his second tour of duty with the U.S. Army.

Some of the more than 100 members of Adkins' unit, the 5th Army Special Forces Group, and Tennessee National Guard, filed out of pews to allow locals to take their seats before the service.

Outside, many of Adkins' comrades stood in formation at parade rest through the 90-minute service. Others lined the lot around the small country church. A small overflow group of mourners sat in a section of chairs set up outside near a loudspeaker.
Fortunately, morning rains had passed and the afternoon, while breezy, was dry.

There were still many in uniform inside the church. Many in Adkins' family are, or were, in the military.

Sgt. Billy Jones shuttled between the church and outside with Adkins' 4-month-old nephew, Andrew Webb, for much of the afternoon.

"Andrew's mom (Crystal Webb) is my niece. I've had him much of this week so I don't mind," said Jones.

"My nephew, Michael Jones, drowned four months ago," Jones added. "It's been a hard year."

Speeches, music and scripture filled a church draped in the colors of Christmas, country and mourning.

Glenn Harris, pastor at Old Friendship, said he knew more of the "wiry kid with our youth group."

But he said watching the soldiers who came from Fort Campbell, Ky., and around the state, to honor Adkins, he was struck by "what they stand for. Duty. Honor. Courage. And above all service to others, and something larger than yourself.

"In terms of the things that are important, Dustin Adkins was playing in the big leagues," he said.

The soldiers then waited patiently 45 minutes more as friends streamed to embrace Adkins' family, and file past his flag-draped open coffin.

His widow, Tiffany, quietly wept as she gave him a final kiss, and relatives took his 3-year-old son, Matthew, to say goodbye.

Outside, family friend Debra Walker sat with Adkins' 2-year-old daughter, Atlanta, who calmly sat waiting for her mother.

"She's a little like Dustin. Nothing ever phased him, always laid back," Walker said of the toddler.

The funeral procession wound its way to Cave Springs Cemetery past several mailboxes and homes displaying flags or red, white and blue ribbons.

At the cemetery the Army let loose with all the ceremony it could muster as the young dental specialist was laid to rest. His grave is next to his grandfather, Woodrow Adkins, buried three years and three days ago.

Battalion commander Lt. Col. William Vertrees said that Adkins could have performed his duties with a number of units, "but he chose Special Forces, where the training and expectations are at the highest level."

Vertrees praised the "family's legacy of service." Command Sgt. Major Steven Voller, a 24-year-veteran who served in Operation Desert Storm, oversaw much of the ceremony.

One might think a career man like Voller and a young dental specialist would not regularly cross paths.

"But you'd be surprised how many of these soldiers Dustin came into contact with," Voller said.

Voller said that his office was near the clinic where Adkins worked when he wasn't deployed.

"I'm the guy who corrects soldiers (on military bearing), and he'd go by my window looking to see if I was looking. He usually was on his toes," Voller said.

He added that Adkins kept him just as honest. "If I didn't keep my visits to the dentist up, he was the one riding me," Voller said with a smile.

But he added "Dustin was always smiling."

Like Voller, Dustin Adkins wanted to be career Army.

"He talked about going to college, going the 'Green-to-Gold' route in officer training school," Voller said. "He's the kind of guy you'd like to see succeed."

Instead, he became the third soldier the 5th Special Forces Group has laid to rest in recent months as Operation Iraqi Freedom drags on.

"This never gets easier," Voller said.

From the Sun

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