News

Brian James: “The outdoors is where I want to be”

By Rhiannon Sawtelle

Posted on April 16, 2009, at 12:00 a.m.

There’s a hole in the University of Maine community. It extends to Presque Isle and to the Maine Air National Guard base in Bangor. It reaches deep into the hearts of students, soldiers and a close-knit family.

Brian James, 22, died this weekend in a snowmobiling accident in Aroostook County – doing what he loved, in a place he loved.

“He was most comfortable outside – kayaking, hiking – and loved being up to camp with his friends and family,” said Kristin Ireland, a friend of James and a UMaine student.

“The outdoors is where I want to be. I am from Presque Isle, and yes, I am a county boy and proud of it,” James wrote on his Facebook.

Family and friends were his No. 1 priority, but his kindness spread into the entire community.

“He would honestly do anything for anyone and was always there to help,” said Megan Sturgeon, a friend of James.

“Brian’s heart did not only extend to his family and friends. He once said to me, ‘Nobody wants to be hated because of their personality or actions. I think everyone deserves a second chance.’ Such a statement is symbolic of how he treated everyone,” Ireland said.

James was often captured smiling in photographs. He had a broad grin, encompassed by his round, rosy cheeks. His blond hair, kept in a short, military-style cut, peeked out from the baseball cap he often wore in his pictures.

A third-year student majoring in Public Administration, he was an accomplished student and soldier.

He was a senior airman in the 101st Security Forces, stationed in Bangor. Enlisting in the Air Force in 2005, the same year he graduated high school, James balanced school and his career with equal enthusiasm.

He was a distinguished graduate from his Security Force Apprenticeship Course. He also received awards for marksmanship and the Maine State Academic Achievement Award.

“He was an exceptional student at the military course he attended and at the University of Maine,” said Capt. Shannon Cotta of the Maine National Guard.

Cotta said James held an important position at the Bangor base. Because most military aircraft flows through Maine on foreign deployments, security is crucial. His division was also trained in refueling military planes bound for Afghanistan and Iraq over the Atlantic Ocean.

“He played an important role safeguarding those activities,” Cotta said.

James carried this sort of commitment over to his schoolwork as well.

“He was a very good student. I remember him with a big smile, cracking a joke here and there,” said Tom Taylor, chair of the Public Administration department.

“We were just shocked when we heard about this. . We really feel sorry we’re missing a good man.”

His classmates remember him similarly.

When Marie Guignard transferred to UMaine from University of Maine at Presque Isle, she was worried about meeting new people.

“I always found something to talk about or usually laugh about when talking to Brian and my other classmates. My worries about being scared about being a new person on a new campus were soon over,” Guignard said.

“Statistics class just will not be the same, especially being able to laugh at certain things in class – like laughing about last week’s lecture on three-way Chi-squares.”

James also kept himself busy outside school and work.

He completed emergency medical technician training at Eastern Maine Community College and had plans to become a firefighter.

He hoped to be a border patrol agent or a Drug Enforcement Administration agent after graduation.

“His goals were never-ending,” Sturgeon said.