The Haysville Times
By Angie Gumm
Serving his country and rubbing elbows with military bigwigs go hand in hand for Haysville soldier Adam Winters.
Winters will have been in Iraq for a year in February, and besides protecting a Major General during that time, he has met many prominent officials, President Bush and, most recently, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Last Thanksgiving Winters didnt get woke up to meet the President when he visited Iraq. He got another chance to meet Bush recently but his camera was on the plane, so he didnt get a picture.
When Winters learned that Rumsfeld was going to be visiting, he wasnt going to miss the opportunity for a photograph.
“This year he made sure he had his camera with him,” said Winters father, Leis Mac Martin.
“It was awesome,” said Mary Mac Martin, Winters mother. The family got their sons photo with the Secretary on Christmas Eve.
“He was really excited about it,” said Mary.
Winters is part of the engineer brigade and is one of a group of body guards in the 1st Armored Division in Iraq. He has had some unique opportunities because of his position. “He gets to go to a lot of neat places,” said Leis. “Hes gone on Black Hawk flights, up to the mountains, a lot of things.”
“He likes it,” said Mary. “Ive been grateful that he was given this job.”
Mary is also grateful that her son isnt able to reveal a lot of details about some of his more dangerous missions. In fact, the name of Winters headquarters, which are located in Tikrit, Iraq, is FOB (Fort Operations Base) Danger. Tikrit is about 90 miles North of Baghdad, where the other bodyguard group is located at FOB Gabe.
The Mac Martins get to talk to their son about once a week. They saw him in September when he came home for two weeks on a “morale leave.”
Winters graduated from Campus in May of 2003 and joined the army that July. The Private First Class went through basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, then went to Germany and Kuwait before going to his current post.
“Hes getting an experience,” said Mary.
When his four years in the service are complete, Winters will take advantage of the $40,000 college fund from the army that hell have waiting for him. His parents say he hopes to eventually become a fireman.