Lee Chester Adams: Joined the Military to Protect a Friend

“I’ll write to you again soon. I’m a friend until YOU die.”

These two lines will forever stick in Jerry Richardson’s memory as the closing lines to the last letter he received from his best friend Lee Chester Adams, of Milwaukee, while Adams was serving in Vietnam. Richardson didn’t hear from Adams for a while after receiving this letter, and eventually saw the local newspaper article about Adams’ death.

“Lee was one in a million. You would’ve been proud to call him a friend,” Richardson says.

Richardson and Adams met in the 10^th grade in their high school band class. They both played trumpet, and happened to sit next to each other. Adams was a loner and didn’t open up to Richardson right away. But eventually their friendship would blossom, and they would end up spending six days of every week together. When they weren’t playing in the high school band together, they were playing sports. While playing football, Richardson was always the quarterback, and Adams was so well rounded that he would play any of the positions. Even though Adams was as athletic as he was, he would still consult Richardson to come up with plays together.

“He cared about what I thought,” Richardson says.

Adams and Richardson were a part of the Upward Bound program where they would attend colleges during the summer in order to prepare them for further education after High School. At first they were to attend separate colleges, but at the last minute, Adams walked into the Principal’s office and convinced him to switch Adams’ college to the same as Richardson’s.

“I don’t know what he said, but it worked. He had that impact on people,” Richardson says as he laughs.

According to his obituary on Find a Grave, Adams was raised in Vance. Mississippi and came to Milwaukee to be raised by his grandmother, Rose McCarter, when his parents divorced. His obituary said his parents’ whereabouts were unknown.

A devoted girlfriend, Vera, still posts on his memorial pages:

I met Lee the summer of 1966. We were both in the Upward Bound Program at UW-Whitewater. He attended West Division High School where he was a senior, and I attended North Division High School, where I was a sophomore. He was my first love and has always, and always will be in my heart. I have thought of him alot through the years. He was only 20 when he gave his life for his country. In my eyes he will always be a hero for the great sacrifice he made for my freedoms. I know we will meet again. Love always and forever…

When he graduated, Adams volunteered for the military. One of their other friends had joined, and Adams joined because he wanted to keep him safe, says Richardson.

“We were at the age where we could do anything we wanted. No more classes. But he chose to turn his back on all of that and look out for our friend,” Richardson says.

Adams volunteered during a time when the Vietnam War was getting ugly. The number of casualties was greatly increasing and people were doing what they could to avoid the draft because they knew many people that went overseas wouldn’t make it back.

“A guy asked me when we were about to get our blood pressure taken if I wanted to eat some soap with him because it raises your blood pressure and then you might not be eligible for the draft,” Richardson says.

Adams came back home from the military on leave, and he and Richardson caught up at a bar. Afterwards they went back to Richardson’s place and kept drinking and talking in the living room. They both ended up falling asleep on the couches at some point. Richardson remembers waking up in the middle of the night and looking over at Adams.

“He was sleeping while sitting up in the couch with the blanket over his head and covering his mid-section but his legs were sticking out. He looked like he was in a body bag and looked like he was dead. It was a bad premonition. I’ll never forget that image,” Richardson says.

That was the last time that they saw each other.

After finding out about Adams’ death, Richardson decided to join the military.

“I was pissed. I went into combat twice. Once in 1968 and again in 1971,” Richardson says.

Adams was a huge influence on the way Richardson lives his life. Neither grew up with a father and so they helped each other learn.

“We grew up together not just age wise, but in a way where we learned how to carry ourselves in the neighborhood,” Richardson says. “I am who I am because of him. When I went into the military I knew how to handle myself because of Lee.”

Years after Adams’ death, Richardson was watching a television program on the Vietnam Wall with his daughter Jasmine. Richardson told her stories about some of the names that he knew were on that Wall. The one with the best stories was Adams.

“God had a hand in us meeting,” Richardson says. “Our friendship was so tight and intense, but it was going to be short. I think about it all of the time. It was a three-year friendship, but he’s my friend for life.”