James L. Bondsteel

- Air National Guardsman recalls camp's namesake

TSgt David Somdahl 119 Fighter Wing / PA North Dakota Air National Guard Memories of a war-torn land and a great soldier are once again on the mind of a retired Happy Hooligan. Donovan Kolness witnessed the devastation of war firsthand, serving a 13-month tour in Vietnam. He was awarded the Bronze Star, twice, and twice was wounded in combat, receiving the Purple Heart. 

Years later he would reenter military life, serving with the 119th Fighter Wing, North Dakota Air National Guard and retiring as a Senior Master Sgt. in 1995. This January soldiers from two North Dakota Army National Guard units were called to active duty for service in the former Yugoslavia republic of Kosovo. Kolness later learned those North Dakotans live and operate from a camp named after a long lost friend, James L. Bondsteel.

Kolness and Bondsteel served together in the same platoon in Company A, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry, part of the 1st Infantry Division. They fought together in a lopsided, brutal battle May 24, 1969, a four-hour firefight from which Staff Sgt. Bondsteel would receive both the Medal of Honor and a Purple Heart.

Bondsteel was known to his colleagues as "Buddha," due in part to his height and large torso. He acquired that nickname from the Vietnamese during one of three combat tours in South Vietnam. During that time, Bondsteel learned to speak Vietnamese and could differentiate between different regional dialects. Kolness said Bondsteel lived in a village during one tour with a special forces unit, watching for signs of hostile activity against U.S. and South Vietnamese forces.

"We'd been in a firefight the day before, on May 23rd" Kolness recalls.  After the firefight Alpha Company seized a cache of weapons and ammunition which was found in a small North Vietnamese Army basecamp nearby. After securing the enemy supplies, they headed back to a place called Thunder Four, a small U.S. Army outpost near the village of An Loc to refuel their armored personnel carriers, then go back out to the area where the firefight took place, setting up for ambushes that night. "The next morning after we had been out on ambush, we began to regroup with the rest of the company," Kolness said. "We were just getting ready to load up on our APCs when we had a call that the recon platoon was taking fire. They were about five miles away." Kolness, who went by the nickname "Spike," said the rest of the company mounted up on top of the APCs and headed towards Lang Sau, a hamlet straight northwest of Saigon about 95 miles away, near the Cambodian border. Kolness said, "The reconnaissance platoon was getting the snuff kicked out of them. They had stumbled into a battalion-plus size base camp and there were maybe 600 to 800 NVA." As the rest of the company arrived, Kolness and the other troops dismounted to the ground, taking cover as the APCs maneuvered into position and got on line. "Then the fight started in a big way." In addition to a numerical disadvantage, Kolness said thick jungle foliage, numerous snipers and a series of fortified underground bunkers made it very difficult to drive away the enemy forces. Bondsteel's accomplishments that day are remarkable. He rallied soldiers from his and other platoons to advance against the entrenched positions. When wounded U.S. soldiers in a rear area were attacked by snipers, Bondsteel ordered Kolness and several others to fall back, to protect and cover the wounded who were taking fire from snipers who moved around through the right flank.  "We pulled the wounded out of the fire as best we could, then the F-4's came swooping in dropping napalm on our right flank, which pretty much eliminated the sniper fire from that side." Kolness said Bondsteel then began advancing on the bunkers. "Bondsteel went from bunker to bunker. He dove into them with a grenade and his M-16 blaring, and then he'd go on to the next one, blowing these bunkers up left and right. We were covering him from about 20 feet behind, dropping grenades into bunkers Bondsteel had just come out of to make sure nobody came up behind him, and also watching for snipers in the surrounding trees." At one point, Bondsteel dove into a bunker and got stuck. Kolness said Bondsteel entered head first, and encountered a North Vietnamese soldier holding a grenade with the pin pulled. "I can still see his feet and legs kicking up in the air as he was trying to back out of that small opening. He was barely out when the grenades concussion blew him back." Kolness said Bondsteel got shrapnel in his face and his chest, mostly just small fragmentations. "He was very lucky that day." Kolness said in all, Bondsteel silenced 10 bunkers and a machine gun nest that day. "During that fight, our company commander was wounded in hand-to-hand combat with an NVA soldier, and Buddha somehow --I don't know where or how he showed up there with all that was going on - but he saved our company commander that day, also." When the shooting finally stopped Kolness said, "It was hot, we had 40 wounded and 10 killed from our company out of maybe 113, 115 guys. It was terribly hot and everybody was just dehydrated. Once it was over it was like we didn't have any energy left." Alpha Company, Kolness said, was relieved by Charlie Company, so Alpha could regroup, make a head count of the remaining soldiers then pull back to Thunder Four for the night to rest and recover. After serving 20 years in the Army, James Bondsteel retired as an E-8 and was hired by the Veterans Administration as a counselor at the regional office in Anchorage, Alaska. He started a family with his wife Elaine, settling in at nearby Eagle River. Together they had two daughters, Angela and Angel. Bondsteel, a veteran of three combat tours in Vietnam, died while driving home from work in April 1987. He encountered a logging truck on a bridge over the Knik River, when a logging chain broke swinging a log into the small Datsun pickup truck Bondsteel was driving. He died instantly. His remains were buried with full military honors at Fort Richardson, near Anchorage. Kolness never saw Bondsteel after the war. Both went to Washington, D.C. for the first anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedication. Kolness learned Bondsteel had been there that same day and missed seeing him by a matter of minutes. Kolness had traveled to D.C. with another veteran of Alpha Company, Dave Anderson of Bloomington, Minn., known during the war as "Popcorn." "What drove him was his passion," Kolness said in a recent interview. "He couldn't stand to see another soldier get hurt, and I don't know if he was that much of a combat expert or not, but he was driven by his passion. I think these people that are in Kosovo (North Dakota Army National Guard soldiers and others) I really feel that, gee, what a perfect name (for the camp). They're over there trying to rebuild that country and help those people out and this guy, that's what he stood for, so its just really perfect." Two years after Bondsteel's death, Kolness deployed to Alaska with the Happy Hooligans. He spent time with Elaine Bondsteel, sharing stories and visiting the gravesite at Fort Richardson.  When he departed, Kolness carried home a number of James Bondsteel's personal possessions. They include dozens of photographs and newspaper clippings, and a one of a kind ceramic stein presented to Bondsteel by President Richard Nixon in 1973, when Nixon awarded Bondsteel the Medal of Honor. Kolness was honorably discharged from the Army following a two-year service commitment. Returning home he was anxious to start college again and in 1970 joined a mechanized infantry unit in Moorhead, part of the Minnesota National Guard, during a "try one" recruiting push to bring veterans back into military service. Kolness wasn't comfortable there and transferred to the North Dakota Army National Guard. He joined the 191st Military Police Company, which at that time was based at armories in Hillsboro and Mayville, N.D., located a short drive from his home in Hendrum, Minn. A few years later, Tom Kolness persuaded his brother Donovan to enlist in the North Dakota Air National Guard. Donovan Kolness served three years as a combat arms instructor then changed career fields becoming a graphics specialist in the 119th Communications Flight multimedia center. Today Donovan Kolness is a successful account executive with Flint Communications, a prominent advertising firm in downtown Fargo. Chief Master Sergeant Tom Kolness is the military personnel management officer at the state headquarters, Fraine Barracks, Bismarck.

BONDSTEEL, JAMES LEROY

Rank and organization: Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company A, 2d Battalion, 2d Infantry, 1st Infantry Division.  Place and date: An Loc Province, Republic of Vietnam, 24 May 1969.  Entered service at: Detroit, Mich. Born: 18 July 1947, Jackson, Mich.  Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. S/Sgt. Bondsteel distinguished himself while serving as a platoon sergeant with Company A, near the village of Lang Sau. Company A was directed to assist a friendly unit which was endangered by intense fire from a North Vietnamese Battalion located in a heavily fortified base camp. S/Sgt. Bondsteel quickly organized the men of his platoon into effective combat teams and spearheaded the attack by destroying 4 enemy occupied bunkers. He then raced some 200 meters under heavy enemy fire to reach an adjoining platoon which had begun to falter. After rallying this unit and assisting their wounded, S/Sgt. Bondsteel returned to his own sector with critically needed munitions. Without pausing he moved to the forefront and destroyed 4 enemy occupied bunkers and a machine gun which had threatened his advancing platoon. Although painfully wounded by an enemy grenade, S/Sgt. Bondsteel refused medical attention and continued his assault by neutralizing 2 more enemy bunkers nearby. While searching one of these emplacements S/Sgt. Bondsteel narrowly escaped death when an enemy soldier detonated a grenade at close range. Shortly thereafter, he ran to the aid of a severely wounded officer and struck down an enemy soldier who was threatening the officer's life. S/Sgt. Bondsteel then continued to rally his men and led them through the entrenched enemy until his company was relieved. His exemplary leadership and great personal courage throughout the 4-hour battle ensured the success of his own and nearby units, and resulted in the saving of numerous lives of his fellow soldiers. By individual acts of bravery he destroyed 10 enemy bunkers and accounted for a large toll of the enemy, including 2 key enemy commanders. His extraordinary heroism at the risk of his life was in the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.