Horrors of Vietnam inspired one Ogden veteran to spend his life giving back
Vietnam Veteran Tom Montez poses for a portrait on Friday, May 1, 2020, outside his Riverdale home. Montez was in the 101st Airborne Division during the war and received two Purple Hearts.
Vietnam Veteran Tom Montez poses for a portrait on Friday, May 1, 2020, outside his Riverdale home. Montez was in the 101st Airborne Division during the war and received two Purple Hearts.
Vietnam Veteran Tom Montez wears a decorated vest on Friday, May 1, 2020. Montez was in the 101st Airborne Division during the war and received two Purple Hearts.
Vietnam Veteran Tom Montez license plate shows a Purple Heart on Friday, May 1, 2020. Montez was in the 101st Airborne Division during the war and received two Purple Hearts.
Vietnam Veteran Tom Montez poses for a portrait on Friday, May 1, 2020, outside his Riverdale home. Montez was in the 101st Airborne Division during the war and received two Purple Hearts.
Vietnam Veteran Tom Montez poses for a portrait on Friday, May 1, 2020, inside his Riverdale home. Montez was in the 101st Airborne Division during the war and received two Purple Hearts.
Vietnam Veteran Tom Montez poses for a portrait on Friday, May 1, 2020, outside his Riverdale home. Montez was in the 101st Airborne Division during the war and received two Purple Hearts.
Vietnam Veteran Tom Montez wears a decorated vest on Friday, May 1, 2020. Montez was in the 101st Airborne Division during the war and received two Purple Hearts.
OGDEN — Tom Montez volunteered to go to Vietnam.
Looking back, the Ogden Army veteran says he had no idea what he was getting into, but if he had to make the decision again today, he’d likely do the same.
“I had friends that were going,” Montez says, in a pragmatic tone. “So, I just decided I’d better go too. I didn’t have a clue about Vietnam, but I learned real quick.”
After signing up, Montez eventually joined the Army’s famed 101st Airborne Division, known as the “Screaming Eagles.” According to an Army fact sheet, the specialized light infantry division was activated one minute after midnight, Aug. 16, 1942, in response to the increasingly intensifying World War II. The unit is known for its aerial assault capability and has been involved in every major U.S. conflict since WWII. Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates once referred to the group as the “tip of the spear.”
In February 1969, just 13 days into his first stint in Vietnam, Montez saw two of his infantrymen killed during an ambush. The incident happened in the A Shau Valley — an area west of the coastal city Hu?, near the Laotian border. The valley was one of the main entry points into South Vietnam and tactically significant due to its proximity to the Ho Chi Minh trail. It’s an area that saw lots of bloodshed during the conflict.
Montez only remembers the two men by their last names — Morris and Mendez — but he helped carry the dead to a nearby landing zone where a helicopter picked them up.
“From then on, I just got into that hyper-vigilant mode and never really left,” Montez said. “I remembered one of my (superiors) back at Fort Bragg (the world’s largest military installation, based in North Carolina) asking, before I left, if I’d ever seen someone with their legs blown off. I was like, ‘Uh, no.’ So when I saw those combat deaths, I realized what he was talking about and I thought, ‘What am I in for here?'”
Montez ultimately did two tours in Vietnam, serving 22 months in the country. In addition to the shocking introduction, he was also wounded twice. He took some shrapnel from a grenade and had his shoulder “open up like a canoe” after a land mine went off near him. Montez received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Combat Infantry Badge for his time in the jungle.
When he returned to the United States he was just 20 years old.
“It was weird,” Montez said. “I came back and I wasn’t old enough to buy a beer, but I was old enough to fight in a war.”
He eventually readjusted to the world back home, dedicating a large chunk of his life to helping veterans just like him. Montez has been involved with the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization, the Disabled Veterans, the American Legion, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, and more. For years, he’s served at veterans’ funerals.
In 1985, while working with the American Federation of Government Employees Union, Montez helped fellow veteran Jacob VandeMyle get a much needed reassignment at Hill Air Force Base.
“He was working in the machine shop and they had all these quotas they had to meet,” Montez said. “Well, this was before we really started talking about PTSD, but all that loud riveting in the machine shop was taking this guy right back to war, reminding him of combat. His supervisors didn’t understand and wouldn’t move him, but I knew exactly what he was going through.”
The case eventually went before the Federal Government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and VandeMyle was granted the reassignment.
“Tom is a guy that works hard for veterans, but he doesn’t seek out any credit,” said Montez’s friend and fellow Vietnam veteran Dennis Howland. “He just wants to get the job done.”
That straightforward, businesslike temperament shines through when Montez reflects on his time in Vietnam.
“I look at it just as a soldier doing his duty, that’s really all,” Montez said. “It was tough, but if I had to, I’d do it again.”