Charles Winfred ‘Chuck’ Adkins Jr

Heart on his sleeve

“I got a call from a captain who I’d worked for at Fort Bragg and he said, ‘Major Adkins, welcome back to the Army.’ I said, ‘Tell me you’re kidding.’”
“I got a call from a captain who I’d worked for at Fort Bragg and he said, ‘Major Adkins, welcome back to the Army.’ I said, ‘Tell me you’re kidding.’”

You can't tell it now, but near the entryway of Chuck and Kathy Adkins' home there used to be four blue stars mounted in the front window.

That's one for each member of their family who was stationed in the Middle East during the Iraqi war -- Chuck, their son Christopher, their nephew Matt and their niece Allison.

Date and place of birth: March 24, 1956, Little Rock

Family: wife Kathy Lynn Adkins, son Major Christopher C. Adkins, daughter Jennifer Lynn Kline granddaughters Alexandra, 12, Rosalie, 2.5, grandsons Alexander, 6, Luca, 3, and Eden, 1.5 and Walker, 1.

What I always tell my MOPH patriots: Strive to help Veterans in need and assist them to obtain the VA benefits they earned by serving our Nation.

Best advice I ever received: Always chose to do the hard right and not the easy wrong, regardless of what it might cost you

Fantasy dinner party guests: President George Washington, General George Patton, President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State Condolezza Rice.

People in high school thought I was a good long distance runner. I ran track and cross country.

If I were stranded on a desert island, I’d have to have my Bible, Kathy, and my Combat Lifesaver Bag.

I’d like to know more about why our Veterans Programs and the Department of Veterans Affairs are continually underfunded.

If I had an extra hour in the day I’d take a longer morning walk with Sweet Pea, my two year old Beagle.

One word to sum me up: busy

"All I could do was send care packages that they would share with everybody," says Kathy Adkins, who says she did her best not to worry about them while they were halfway around the world. She grew up in a military family before having one of her own, so she knew the drill. Instead of wasting time worrying, she "just prayed" and called them as often as she could.

"Fortunately none of those stars turned to gold, which signals that you've lost a family member," says Chuck Adkins, senior vice commander for the Military Order of the Purple Heart Department of Arkansas. The organization advocates on behalf of veterans so they can receive the benefits promised to them by the country they served. "After we all came back, and she decided we were safe and not going to be deployed, she took them down."

Though Adkins had a long military career starting with active duty in the Army in 1981, it was rather a surprise to be called to Iraq when he was. He'd been retired for five years and was teaching ROTC on the University of Arkansas campus, where his son had just graduated.

"I got a call from a captain who I'd worked for at Fort Bragg and he said, 'Major Adkins, welcome back to the Army,'" Adkins says. "I said, 'Tell me you're kidding.' He said, 'We're short officers ... I saw a Major Adkins pop up, and I figured it had to be you, so I wanted to be the one to tell you.'"

Army logisticians, who coordinate the military supply chain, were at a premium, so they reached out to former ones through the Retiree Recall and Mobilization office, which was new at the time.

Adkins was involuntarily called back to active duty under the guise that it'd be a one-year term. During his time in Iraq, an IED (improvised explosive device) exploded in front of his unit -- taking out one of the vehicles in his convoy, killing eight soldiers and wounding four more. Adkins helped evacuate the wounded and returned to the scene where a second IED exploded and injured every man in his HMMWV.

"I thank God almighty because if my driver had been two seconds faster or the [IED] triggerman had been two seconds slower, it would have gone off right underneath the vehicle," Adkins says. "It just happened that the timing made it go off so we drove into the blast, which was bad enough."

After Adkins' return stateside, he's focused on the Military Order of the Purple Heart trails and cities programs, which dedicates public spaces and buildings as memorials to wounded veterans. Since then Arkansas, which had five Purple Heart cities before, now has 26. Salem, in Fulton County, is next. It's being dedicated Thursday and Hot Springs on June 7.

"We wanted to raise visibility [of our organization] and that program is one of the ways we're doing it," says Mark Diggs, junior vice commander for MOPH Arkansas, who recently took over the Little Rock chapter. While building up the chapter that's been dormant in past years, "Chuck has been phenomenal in his support. He's a ball of energy, dedicated, a tremendous help. He's a quality guy who's dedicated and will do anything and has taught me a lot."

Under his direction, the Little Rock capitol became the first capitol in the nation to become a Purple Heart structure, and Camp Robinson became the first Purple Heart military installation in the country.

ONCE AN ARMY MAN, ALWAYS AN ARMY MAN

Adkins was born in Little Rock, where he grew up with an older sister and a younger brother. He knew from a young age that he was born to be in the military.

"He's the one person who has truly lived their life's dream, he [managed to do] what he wanted to do when he grew up," says Bryan Adkins, his brother. He recalls an 8-year-old Chuck playing on monkey bars at the park -- wearing a kid's play Army helmet -- when a newspaper photographer took his photo and asked him what he wanted to be. "'In the Army.' He lived his dream,that's all he wanted to do. He was in there twice."

Chuck Adkins graduated from Little Rock Central High School in 1974. His father was an engineer who had been in the Navy, so Adkins was familiar with military life and took Air Force ROTC in high school. He started there, applying for an Air Force ROTC college scholarship, but during the exam portion missed entrance by a single point.

It still flummoxes him that the winning recipient shares Chuck's birthdate.

He took a solid year to consider whether he wanted to go to college, but his friends eventually convinced him to enter and he worked two full-time jobs -- McDonald's by day, Virco Manufacturing by night, making school desks -- to afford to go.

"I came home one Friday, sat on the porch and realized I didn't know where I was supposed to be," Adkins says. "I was exhausted. I thought 'Am I supposed to be at work? If so, at which job? Or am I supposed to be in class and if so, which one?"

Something had to give, so he dropped the factory job and found a group of close-knit friends in his McDonald's cohorts.

At the University of Central Arkansas he studied psychology and joined Army ROTC at the insistence of buddy, coworker and roommate Greg Lewis, who also introduced Chuck to Kathy, Greg's little sister.

She had come over to check on the place the two boys would be living to make sure it was suitable for Greg. Kathy brought her roommate, and they inspected everything: cabinets, refrigerator, closets, Chuck's underwear drawer and finally the spare room, before she was satisfied.

Both were dating other people, but they all spent time together in a group.

"At first we were really just friends ... but he was a really nice guy, which is what I was looking for," Kathy Adkins says.

One night the posse was involved in a car wreck that left each of them injured, and shortly after, Kathy broke up with her boyfriend. Weeks later, a few of them made plans to see Saturday Night Fever, but only Chuck and Kathy showed up.

That night, "I had a blast," Chuck Adkins says. "I asked her 'Do you mind if I ask you out again next week?' She said, 'I don't know, you'll have to call me.'"

They were married about two years later, in 1979.

GENERAL PATTON

Adkins began his military service in 1980 through the National Guard. Once he graduated college in 1981, he received an Army commission that took the newlywed couple to Germany, South Korea and many states over the years to come.

"Everyone who was my age had seen [the movie] Patton, and I said that I wanted to be the next Patton," Adkins says. He didn't think twice about not pursuing a career with his newly minted psychology degree.

Initially he was disappointed by the military assignment of quartermaster, but the more Adkins learned about it, the more he liked it. Getting everything from clothing to weapons and vehicles to his unit was important work. And sometimes it was fun, too.

Back in their Germany days, he drove an American made Volkswagen Rabbit, and it drove the Germans nuts. The headlights were different -- square instead of round, which was weird -- but mostly, it had air conditioning. He was always getting offers for his personal vehicle.

A little more than a year into their time there, Adkins was company executive officer, senior lieutenant and new father to his two children, born only a year and 12 days apart. He ditched his Army Jeep in favor of that VW Rabbit so he could take infant Christopher to work with him while mother and baby recovered.

"I made arrangements, permission for me to come out to the field on a daily basis and drive my own vehicle; you couldn't put a baby seat in a Jeep" anyway, Adkins says. "So my son, at a year old, got to go out in the field and play soldier."

With one grandfather a retired lieutenant colonel and the other grandfather a World War II and Korean War veteran, Christopher had lots of military legacy to continue and easily picked up the family dream. As an Army engineer, Adkins' son got promoted to major earlier than is typical.

"He's equal with me now, but I have no doubt that my son will outrank me one day," Adkins says. "I'll salute him, and I'll be happy to do it."

WHAT'S RIGHTFULLY OURS

By all accounts, Adkins is a decorated veteran.

His military career earned a Bronze Star, the symbol of heroic achievement in combat, along with five Meritorious Service Medals, four Army Commendation Medals, five Army Achievement Medals, the Joint Service Achievement Medal and the National Defense Service Medal, among many others.

More recently, he was named 2015 Patriot of the Year by the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Arkansas and 2015 MOPH Patriot of the Year for the Southern region of the U.S., which includes Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico.

But it took five years for the Army to award him the Purple Heart.

"Initially our command said 'no,'" Adkins says. "And I understand what they were trying to do. They didn't want to cheapen the award. There are men who come back, and they've lost limbs, they've lost eyes and whereas I had an MTBI (mild traumatic brain injury), they had TBIs, which means they really suffered."

That doesn't take away Adkins' own injuries and experience of recovery. Now 10 years after the event, he still deals with insomnia, tinnitus, persistent headaches, hearing loss and a high level of pain in his feet, which suffered nerve damage.

The requirements deeming an injury worthy of a Purple Heart vary for each branch of the military, and by the Army's account, Adkins and his troops didn't make the cut. It wasn't until Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Adkins' senior raider in Iraq, became vice chief that someone pressed for the soldiers to get the designation so they could receive medical benefits in return for their sacrifices.

"Chiarelli said, 'We've cheated soldiers out of the Purple Heart that they deserve,'" Adkins says. "He put forth the guidance to have the packets [re]reviewed."

With the help of then-congressman John Boozman and Lieutenant Steve Gray, Adkins and his cohorts received Purple Hearts years after the fact and were able to go to the Veterans Administration hospital for their ailments. Adkins received a custom pair of orthopedic shoes to help ease the pain.

He serves veterans through the Military Order of the Purple Heart and works with other Veteran Service Organizations, such as the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars), MOAA (Military Officers Association of America), the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs and the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, so that other veterans will have the chance to heal and to be honored.

In his retirement, "instead of propping his feet up, he helps veterans," Diggs says.

"I always remembered what the Purple Heart did for my father-in-law after his service," Adkins says. "When I was awarded mine, I thought of him.

"Our charter is not just for those who received the Purple Heart, but for the benefit of all veterans to ensure they receive benefits that they have earned."

NAN Profiles on 05/22/2016

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