Family and friends honor life of Cpl. Adam Fales
Published 11:34 pm Friday, December 23, 2005
It was a final embrace between brothers, one final good-bye between two young men who spent their lives playing backyard football, serving as high school teammates and serving their country in the Marine Corps.
Marine Corporal Jacob Fales stretched his arm over the coffin of his younger brother Adam — whom he considered his best friend along with their younger brother James.
His lips touched the coffin as he told his brother he loved him one more time.
Their mother — Glenda Fales — drew comfort from the American flag she clutched close to her heart. It made her feel closer to the son she had lost the Saturday before when he died from a gunshot wound in an accident at Camp Fallujah in Iraq.
“Adam really loved this place up here,” she said of the mountain side cemetery at Straight Mountain Baptist Church in Blount County where her son was laid to rest with full military honors on Friday afternoon.
It seemed a fitting setting as family, friends and area veterans came together to honor 21-year-old Adam Fales for the service he gave to his country.
The sounds of birds chirping and dogs barking in the distance mixed in with the gunshots fired by fired by the honor guard from the Marine Corps Reserve Training Center in Huntsville.
The sounds of Adam Fales’ 5-month old niece Emily seemed to go with the message his cousin, Gary O’Steen, gave of the promise of resurrection from the Bible.
It was a service that touched everyone in attendance, including Jeremy Harbin, a former classmate and high school football teammate of Adam Fales at Fairview High School, even though he attended military funerals before as the son of a Marine.
“It’s always hard,” Harbin said. “They’ve made the ultimate sacrifice. My dad (James Marshall Harbin) made a career of it. Now I’ve got a friend who has given his life to it.”
He described Adam Fales as a person who lived the Marine motto of “Semper Fidelis” even before he joined the Marines.
“He was always a loyal and faithful friend,” Harbin said.
He would get no argument from H.C. Forrest, a former Marine from Gwinnett, Ga., who served with Adam in Cherry Point, N.C.
“These people here are the salt of the earth, and so was Adam,” Forrest said. “He had a good heart. He was so full of life.”
Clay Shockley, another former classmate and teammate, was among those from the Fairview community still coming to terms with the death of a beloved friend.
“It really hits home,” Shockley said. “I really didn’t expect to lose someone this close to me so soon, especially someone younger than me (Shockley was a year ahead of Fales at Fairview). It is great to know he was serving a greater cause.”
O’Steen said Adam Fales was following in a family tradition of military service when he enlisted in the Marine Corps following his graduation from Fairview in 2002. He said that his cousin was the product of the upbringing from his parents, Glenda and Joe Fales.
“We are certainly proud of Adam,” O’Steen said. “Serving in the military is something that runs in the family. We’ve had several members of our family serve with distinction in the military.”
Adam Fales was in the middle of a nine-month deployment in Iraq with Combat Support Detachment 21, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Forced based out of Cherry Hill, N.C. He served with the military police.