THE WALL OF FACES

DEAR LANCE CORPORAL ADGAR,
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE AS A GRUNT. YOU WERE BORN ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF PEARL HARBOR.
REST IN PEACE AND SEMPER FI.

Lance Corporal Willie Howard Adger, Served with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, Third Marine Amphibious Force.

MOTHER RECOUNTS LAST DAYS OF SON

The fragrant odor of cooking in the kitchen drifted into the living room of 817 Best Street. Soft music was heard from a radio in an adjoining room.
It was bright outside. But inside the shades were drawn and the neatly furnished living room was dark except a vase of tulips on the stereo and a vase of azaleas on the coffee table.
The gloom of an untimely death permeated the apartment.
THE MOTHER of Marine Lance Corporal Willie Howard Adger sat in the middle of the sofa behind the coffee table and talked about her son who had been killed by hostile rifle fire Feb. 7 in the vicinity of Quang Tri, South Vietnam.
"he was a good boy. Real quiet, easy to get along with. He had lots of friends," said Mrs. Vashti Adger.
"He was supposed to get engaged after he got back from overseas," continued the mother.
WILLIE, WHO was 20 years old in December, "was drafted, but he chose the Marines," Mrs. Adger said. "he left here on the 13th of March last year."
He went to Parris Island, S.C. for training. "he said the training there was pretty rough," his mother recalled.
Did he like the Marines? "i think he did," Mrs. Adger said, "after he got out of training. He said he would have liked to have been a drill instructor but not a career Marine."
After Parris Island and Camp Lejeune, Willie visited his family last summer before leaving for Vietnam last Aug. 7.
"THE ONLY thing he wrote was that it was hot and rainy there. He always said for us not to worry about him," she said.
Willie's last letter to his mother was dated Feb. 5, two days before his death. She was told of his death on Sunday, Feb. 11, by her pastor, the Rev. Cecil Bishop. Then the final letter home arrived Feb 13.
Willie Adger was born in Winnsboro, S.C., the son also of the late Richard Adger. The family moved to Greensboro when he was six years old.
AFTER GRADUATION in 1965 from Dudley High School, Willie worked in a cafeteria at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and then at Cone Mills.
While in Greensboro he was a lifeguard at the Windsor Community Center and an active participant in activities at the Hayes-Taylor YMCA. He was a member of Trinity AME Zion Church.
Funeral plans are incomplete, pending arrival of the body at Brown's Funeral Home.
Other survivors are sisters, Nancy and Eileen Adger of the home; brother Richard Adger of Syracuse, N.Y.; grandmother, Mrs. Rosa Adger of Winnsboro, S.C.

Semper Fidelis, Marine!

Semper Fi Marine.