Jimmy Adamouski's leadership qualities are what Laura Griffith felt would lift her brother to the Oval Office one day. That opportunity will never happen as U.S. Army Capt. James Adamouski became the victim of a helicopter crash in Iraq on Wednesday, April 2. The loss left the Springfield family in mourning.
"He had this quality, this aura, Griffith said. "He would have been the first Polish-Catholic president."
Adamouski's determination to graduate from West Point was an early sign of those leadership qualities. A 1991 graduate of Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, he was president of the senior class, according to his father Francis J. Adamouski Jr.
An only son, James Adamouski had three sisters. In addition to Laura, there was Karen Marion, 33, and Jaclyn, 24.
"They all went to him with their problems. Jimmy was always the leader," Francis Adamouski said.
ACCORDING TO INFORMATION released by the Department of Defense, Adamouski was one of six U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment, who were on the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter which crashed in central Iraq.
The Adamouski family got word of the accident on Thursday, April 3 and immediately drove to Georgia, where the 3rd Aviation Regiment is based.
Francis Adamouski looked at his son's determination and attitude as potential lessons for the younger generation. "I think the story of his life would be a great help to the younger generation," he said.
This wasn't the first time that James Adamouski was in harm's way. He went to Bosnia three times and Albania once. But his mother Judith Adamouski felt uneasy about the deployment to Iraq. "This deployment bothered me a lot, I didn't have good vibes," she said.
When she expressed concern to her son, he said, "I'll fly low and I'll fly fast."
ADAMOUSKI, 29, had been married seven months to the former Meighan Lacey, a fellow graduate of Lee High School. Although the two did not know each other well at Lee, Griffith felt the circumstances behind their relationship were unique. Griffith met Meighan while working at Outback Steakhouse in Springfield and introduced the two.
"They didn't know each other," Griffith said. "I was the one who introduced them. We all went out. Afterward she said 'I'm going to be Mrs. James Adamouski.'"
At Lee, Adamouski loved soccer but played football one year for the Lancers as the kicker. Mary Schaefer, a teacher at Lee for the past 22 years, remembers Adamouski. She taught earth science at the time and when the class broke into lab groups, he was a natural leader.
"He would take charge of them, he always did it in a very pleasant way," she said.
As far as a future president of the United States, Schaefer thought that was possible as well.
"That's not far-fetched at all," she said. "He did have the potential of being president. It was a tragic loss. We have truly lost someone that might have done wonderful things for our country."
All of his school years, James Adamouski was obsessed with perfect attendance, Griffith remembered. Once, while a seventh grader at Key Middle School, he missed the bus and called a cab. When they arrived at school, James Adamouski realized he did not have enough money, but the cab driver understood.
"Typical Jimmy," said Griffith, of her brother's persistence.
James Adamouski planned on completing his master's in business administration and had been selected to teach economics at West Point.
When the Army is through investigating the crash, the family will have a service at The Church of Nativity in Burke the evening prior to a burial at Arlington National Cemetery.
Griffith suffers from multiple sclerosis and Meighan Adamouski requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made in her husband's name to the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.