The staff at the Mountain Gazzette in Jericho graciously provided this newspaper article

Adam Muller killed in Iraq

Second MMU alumnus to make the ultimate sacrifice

By Sara Riley

Mountain Gazette Staff

Every one of the 4326 U.S. military personnel lost in these wars (466 in Afghanistan; 3860 in Iraq – icasualties.org) is a loss to us all, but it is brought home more keenly when we lose one of our own local young people. Two young men who graduated from Mount Mansfield Union High School have been lost to our community – Vermont National Guard Sgt. Scott McLaughlin in 2005, and Army Pfc. Adam Muller last week.

On Veterans’ Day, we honor the men and women who have served, thanking them for their service; the Mountain Gazette dedicates space for their photos, stories, and experiences, mostly in their own words.

Adam Muller won’t get to observe Veterans’ Day as a veteran. It’s up to us all to remember him for his life, as well as for his service and for how he died upholding his duty.

Adam was from Jonesville. He graduated from MMU in 2004 and attended Vermont Technical College, studying to become a mechanic, though he dreamed of becoming a police officer.

But in high school, Adam was motivated by music – as a senior, he joined the MMU Chorus so he could participate in performing Bohemian Rhapsody by the rock group Queen. His classmates were not the only ones to benefit from that interest.

The Underhill Central School community expressed appreciation of Adam Muller’s dedication to his country and family. In a statement in the Underhill Central School Family News, UCS Principal Michael Berry said, “Adam came to Underhill Central School as a part of the MMU Chorus when he was in school and made an impression on our students and staff even in that short glimpse. So today we say thank you to Adam and his family. You have made an impression that will not be forgotten.”

Adam and his wife Michelle, high school sweethearts who had known each other since grade school, were married just less than a year.

Kaylee Tanielian of Westford became a friend of Michelle and, through her, Adam at MMU. Kaylee knew Adam as an “all around good guy,” fun-loving and approachable. “If you were having a bad day, he’d try to cheer you up – even if he didn’t know you,” she said. In Iraq, Kaylee said, the Iraqi children around Adam looked up to him. Adam had asked Michelle to send lollipops to him in Iraq – since it was harder to get enough beanie babies – so he could hand them out to the kids. “But there was no time,” said Kaylee.

In the Army, which he joined partly to help pay off student loans, Adam hoped to become a military policeman – following his father’s path – and this might have helped prepare him for a later job in law enforcement.

Adam had been expecting a mission in Iraq performing security functions, but he had also been trained as a gunner. Shortly before he was deployed, he was told his assignment had changed.

It was as a gunner in a Humvee at the tail end of a convoy that Adam and three other soldiers were killed by an IED (improvised explosive device) near Kirkuk in northern Iraq on Monday, November 5. He had been in Iraq about two months.

Though these lyrics from Bohemian Rhapsody, the song Adam liked so much, are out of context, they are apt:

… life had just begun …

if I’m not back again this time tomorrow

carry on, carry on …

Soldiers put their desire to serve our country ahead of their position on politics or issues or policy. We need to put respect for that willingness to serve, in peacetime or war, ahead of partisan considerations. Their service gives us all the space in which to carry on.

Thank you to all veterans.