Denver Adams at Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, S.C. Adams is the Voices of Valor veteran for this month. (Photo Provided)

ST. MARYS – Music is a big part in the life of a St. Marys veteran who served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Denver Adams, 68, joined the Marines in November 1977 upon graduation from St. Marys High School and was discharged in July 1983 as a corporal E-4.

The 250th anniversary of the USMC will be celebrated at 10 a.m. today at the Veritas Classical Academy, 115 Victory Place, Marietta, where Adams, through his membership in the United States Marine Corps League Sgt. Bob O’Malley Chapter in Marietta, will sing. The annual cake cutting celebrating the anniversary will be held at 8 p.m. today.

“I will be singing ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ and conducting the annual cake cutting we have every year.”

Adams, who began playing the drums at an early age, was in the St. Marys High School choir in his senior year. He previously attended Frontier High School and sang in the school choir in his sophomore and junior years before the family moved to St. Marys.

St. Marys resident Denver Adams, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, recorded “Worthy of the Lamb” in 2023. He is the drummer for The Carriers, a gospel group, and was once the singer in the band. (hPhoto by Jess Mancini)

At Frontier, Adams was among those chosen for a 1,000-student choir at Ohio Wesleyan University.

He joined The Carriers, a gospel group formed by David and Mike Kelly in 1969, as a singer. David Kelly was recently appointed commissioner of the state Department of Corrections.

Adams joined the group in 1984, left in 2020, then returned three months ago, this time as the drummer. The Carriers have an active performance schedule with two shows this month alone, he said.

“We travel in a 47-foot bus,” Adams said.

In 2022, Adams recorded “Worthy the Lamb,” a CD of gospel music produced at Sweetsong Productions in Parkersburg. The notoriety later got him a call to perform at the Fourth of July celebration in Vienna where he was introduced as a Sweetsong recording star.

From left, Denver Adams with his friends Gene Stewart and Charles Wells, both of St. Marys, at the McDonald’s in St. Marys. Adams, a Marine Corps veteran, frequently meets with old friends at that location. (Photo by Jess Mancini)

He was on the stage with a young boy who led the Pledge of Allegiance.

“He thought I was a recording star and asked for my autograph when we got off the stage,” Adams said.

Adams is a member of the Marine Corps League, AmVets Post 40 in St. Marys where he is in the Honor Guard for funerals and parades and is a member of VFW Post 5108 auxiliary in Marietta.

He was a dispatcher in Pleasdants County for 23 years, worked four years for the Division of Corrections at the St. Marys Correctional Center, was a computer software support specialist for Prosite Business Solutions in New Martinsville and volunteered for the Red Cross, St. Marys Volunteer Fire Department and as an EMT with the Pleasants County Emergency Squad.

He is proud of his service in the Marines. Boot camp was at Parris Island, S.C.

Denver Adams of St. Marys is in the first row, farthest right. Being 5-foot-1 and weighing 117 pounds, a drill instructor nicknamed him Killer to build his confidence. (Photo Provided)

The lessons he learned there have carried him over his entire life, improvise, adapt and overcome. Being 5-feet-1 and weighing 117 pounds was a challenge, he said.

“Obviously being as small as I am, there were a lot of things for me to overcome,” he said.

Adams said he was nicknamed Killer by a drill sergeant to instill confidence.

“I had to live up to it once he gave me that name,” Adams said.

After basic training at Parris Island, he reported to the Naval Air Technical Training Camp at Lakehurst, N.J., in February 1978 for eight weeks of instruction. He graduated top in his class.

Denver Adams poses by an arresting gear to stop landing jets. He was assigned to an arresting gear crew at the El Toro Marine based in Santa Ana, Calif. (Photo Provided)

In April 1978, Adams was assigned to the El Toro Marine air station at Santa Ana, Calif., where he served on an arresting gear crew in the 3rd Marine Air Wing. The crew was in charge of the mechanisms to stop landing planes.

An incident there was among the most memorable, he said.

A pilot reported the flight controls to his F-4 Phantom were inoperable, Adams said. He could either fly over the ocean and eject or attempt a landing on land where the crew would attempt to stop him, Adams said.

The decision was made for a landing on land, he said. The problem was the jet was flying at over 200 knots and the arresting gear’s maximum engaging speed was 190 knots, Adams said.

“We decided to go ahead and try to stop him,” Adams said. “And to our surprise it actually stopped the airplane.”

The pilot when he exited the plane thanked and shook the hand of each member, Adams said.

He was assigned to the Marine Corps air station on Okinawa and served a year there before being ordered in November 1979 to return to El Toro as a tech on an arresting crew.

He met his wife, Ethel, in 1980 and their son, Steve, was born in 1982.

Adams was discharged July 19, 1983, a fateful event, he said.

A Marine Expeditionary Unit was created in 1982 after a bombing in Lebanon with orders to be prepared to leave within 24 hours notice for Beirut to evacuate Americans, Adams said. However, his Marine Corps discharge came before the unit was ordered to deploy, he said.

The unit eventually was sent to Beirut where a bombing in October 1983 at a barracks killed 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three U.S. Army soldiers. A simultaneous attack at a barracks where French paratroopers were stationed killed another 58 soldiers.

Had he not been discharged, Adams said he would have been among the Marines in Beirut.

“I think about that every day,” he said. “It weighs heavy.”

Jess Mancini can be reached at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com