Posted on Wed, Feb. 04, 2004
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Adam Kinser left indelible mark
By Scott MarshallCONTRA COSTA TIMES
RIO VISTA, CA - In his last visit home, Army Spc. Adam Kinser arrived for Christmas from Afghanistan, 55 pounds heavier, with no fat and proud of serving his country, a father-to-be with a man's confidence.
Although home for only a couple of weeks, Kinser, 21, took time to return to Rio Vista High School to help his brother, Luke, 17, a junior, complete a research project -- learning about an average American soldier's average day in Afghanistan. He stressed duty, patriotism and helping innocents.
His father, Paul Kinser Jr., staved off tears for a full minute Tuesday before recalling a recent conversation with his son via a satellite telephone from Afghanistan.
"I asked him, 'What has impressed you?' And he said, 'You know, Dad, no matter where you go in the world, kids are the same.'" Adam Kinser had asked his family to send coloring books, crayons and stickers for the many children he encountered.
He was killed Thursday in Ghazni, south of Kabul, when a weapons cache exploded. Besides his father, Paul, and brother Luke, he is survived by his mother, Terri; sisters Blake, 19, and Rebekah, 8; and brother Jacob, 2.
His son will be named after him.
Kinser's wife of nearly a year, Tiffany, 20, who is due to deliver their first child March 24, decided to name the baby Adam Noah Kinser.
Kinser's leader in Afghanistan, Sgt. James "Bryce" Ceja, looked after the young soldier, maybe shielding him a little extra from particularly dangerous missions, Paul Kinser said. Duty separated the two, and before Ceja could rejoin the young Kinser, he was killed. Ceja would not leave the coffin after his charge had fallen, Paul Kinser said.
Ceja was on his way home to California on Tuesday and to Rio Vista at the family's request, said Army Lt. Col. Henry Stolarz.
Kinser's short life left an indelible mark on the soul of Rio Vista, which is to say everyone in town, where children grow up together as their parents did and attend Rio Vista High.
"It's like Beaver land. It's Pleasantville. It's black and white," said Bill Fulk, who taught Adam, Blake and now Luke Kinser.
First-semester final exams were rescheduled when the news of Kinser's death came. The basketball team's Friday game was postponed, said Rio Vista High Principal Dan Wallin. Counselors met with students. Fulk's students told Adam Kinser stories all day.
"In my class, I had 25 seniors walk in; they all knew him -- 6 feet, 1 inch, 200 pounds crying. I had girls dissolving," Fulk recalled. "Because it wasn't just a name; it was someone they grew up with, basically in the same womb. Their mothers got pregnant together."
The three flags at City Hall -- the American flag, the black POW-MIA flag and the state flag -- were lowered to half-staff. Food, cards and American flags arrived at the Kinser home.
Adam had the complete package.
"I've seen miracles, people have extended themselves," said Rio Vista Mayor Marci Coglianese. "It could have been any of our young people, because they all have promise. He was loved by everybody in this town; he had the work ethic, personality, brains, everything."
Kinser became one of the most noted students at Rio Vista High, where he was the starting quarterback for three years. Athletes there typically play multiple sports all four years because the school has only 425 students and 21 teachers.
"This is a different kind of community," said Kinser's football coach, Dan Mahoney, who said the player never complained, not even after he suffered a separated shoulder in his last game as a senior before graduating in 2001.
The whole family is held in high esteem.
"This young man and his entire family, I think they are an amazing example of what makes this country strong," Mahoney said.
Kinser was known as a natural leader who gravitated toward the weak before the strong, the less popular before the popular. He shunned the role of "big man on campus."
Pausing, fighting off tears, impatiently enjoining himself in whispered staccato -- "stop, stop, stop, stop, stop" -- Fulk quickly gathered himself: "A person can only bring sadness in your life only to the extent they brought good to your life."
At a memorial at 6 p.m. tonight at the Rio Vista High gymnasium, members of VFW Post 11389 will perform the flag honors. Lori Page and two daughters, Jennifer, who graduated with Adam Kinser, and Jeanette, 18, will sing "Amazing Grace." Members of Paul Kinser's men's Bible study group at Union Baptist Church, where Adam Kinser was a member, will sing the praise anthem, "The Battle Belongs to the Lord."
Adam Kinser's body will come home in about 10 to 14 days from the day he died.
By Memorial Day, Adam Kinser's name will have been indelibly added to the VFW post's granite monument beside the Sacramento River at City Hall, Rio Vista's first war loss since Army Pfc. Alvie Clinton Wyatt died in Vietnam on Jan. 11, 1967.
Tiffany Kinser moved from the couple's Sacramento home to Rio Vista on Saturday. Said Paul Kinser Jr., whose ancestors have fought and died in every war from the American Revolution through World War II: "We're going to have another Adam Kinser in town."
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