Ed Fontaine receives the Bronze Star

Ed Fontaine and his wife Debbie live in a four-lot subdivision below the community of Cabin City in the Henderson area. Ed is a humble, yet bonafide war hero who recently received recognition from an event that happened 55 years ago.

“Peter Nebe and I were a ‘gun team’ for 3rd Platoon, A-Company, 2/502 Parachute Infantry Battalion, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.”

This is his story leading up to the fight on a hill in Chu Lai, Vietnam October 7, 1967:

“It may help your perspective to know that machine gun teams in Vietnam had an exceedingly high casualty rate because all enemy soldiers were trained to concentrate their fire at the very sound of an M60 machine gun firing. I served as an assistant gunner for a machine gunner that was killed. He received his Bronze Star with V posthumously. Five days before this battle my Company was about to cross a stream not far from the hill I just referred to when I told Joseph (that was his last name, didn't know his first), the other machine gunner in our platoon, that the bolt in my machine gun had what I thought was a piece of C-ration wire holding it together. Normally, Peter Nebe and I would be the ‘point gun team’ that would walk directly behind the ‘point and slack’ team of our platoon while the other gun team provided rear security for about 25 predominately teenage paratroopers. This time I asked Joseph if he would be willing to flip a coin to see which of us would be the first to cross that stream. Joseph ‘won’ the toss and was killed along with at least six other members of our platoon just after our platoon made the steam crossing. The wire holding the bolt of my machine gun together contributed to saving my life and Peter’s.”

“Both Peter and I knew that our machine gun was defective. When, then LT. Rogers yelled, ‘Fontaine, bring up the gun’, Peter and I faced the largest volume of fire any of us would ever see. My first thought was ‘suicide’. Incredibly, Peter said immediately, ‘I’ll go if you’ll go’!! We both knew that Peter really meant, ‘I’ll die if you’ll die’. Peter’s unselfish, ultimate devotion to the welfare of others is just one example why I would always say with no trace of false humility that I was damn proud to be considered an average combat paratrooper. The soldiers I fought with were scary brave and extremely compassionate!!! I have a uniquely profound insight as to what it takes to be an outstanding assistant gunner because I failed as an assistant gunner. You should know that I had no formal infantry training beyond what I received in basic training.

As an assistant gunner, I got to carry ammunition for my M16 rifle along with hundreds of heavier 7.62 machine gun ammo. Even though the machine gun was always placed at the most likely point of attack, especially at night, a good assistant gunner was expected to shoot his own rifle primarily to protect the machine gunner. The fact that I carried M16 magazines full of tracers should have tipped off more experienced troopers that I was not psychologically likely to do this. My first firefight resulted in me engaging the enemy to my left as the machine gunner I was supposed to support engaged on his right. I became so focused on shooting that I completely lost track of the machine gunner. The next day I was told I would be a radio operator (RTO). The machine gunner gets significantly more recognition than the assistant machine gunner even though the assistant gunner is much more exposed to enemy fire during a firefight. In a paratrooper outfit, it is easier to find ten good machine gunners than it is to find one good assistant gunner. Good machine gunners need only to be brave. A good assistant gunner needs to be both brave and unselfish to an extent that is extremely rare. On the night of October 7, 1967, Peter’s unselfish devotion to his Attack Company family prevented this headline from appearing in newspapers throughout the world, ‘Special North Vietnamese Attack Forces Incinerate 101st Airborne Paratrooper Company!!!’”

On Tuesday, May 31, the day after Memorial Day, Ed Fontaine received recognition of his heroism on a day from 55 years ago in Rose Park, Missoula, at the Vietnam Memorial. But Oct. 7 has an even deeper meaning to Fontaine who is a devout Catholic.

“October 7th is a very Holy Catholic day because it is the anniversary of a Catholic victory over an overwhelmingly superior Turkish invasion fleet during the late fifteen hundreds that saved Christian Europe (and Western Civilization). Catholic warriors sailed into battle praying the Rosary.”

“Congressman Rosendale’s office received my Bronze Star over a year ago. I told his staff the medal itself was not important to me. Too many teenage soldiers in Vietnam got the Bronze Star with V posthumously by taking unnecessary chances the way the machine gunner did who I had served as assistant gunner. It was almost impossible to be a respected front-line paratrooper ‘Boonie Rat’ and not deserve at least one Bronze Star with V, yet most deserving young citizen soldiers did not receive one. The Bronze Star with Valor is important to me because it documents a Miracle. Which is exactly what Father Griego (of Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls, Idaho) said when he accepted the medal from Congressmen Rosendale on my behalf. In doing so Father Griego was duplicating what Catholic warriors have done over the centuries. The Miracle took place on a hill in Chu Lai, Vietnam on October 7th, 1967.”