FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. -- "Wow, it's heavier than I thought it would be," said Michael Guenette of the M60 machine gun, handed to him by Capt. Tyler Reid, historian for the 101st Airborne Division.
Standing inside Fort Campbell's Don F. Pratt Museum, Guenette held the gun and imagined his brother, Spc. Peter M. Guenette, holding the same cumbersome weapon as he trekked through the jungles of Vietnam in 1968 with his comrades from Whiskey Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment.
A Soldier's sacrifice
On May 18, 1968, Peter's platoon came under enemy fire in the province of Quan Tan Uyen from North Vietnamese soldiers employed to delay entrance into their base camp. A mere 10-meters from the heavily-equipped enemy force, Peter and his assistant gunner began to provide suppressive fire. Seconds later, an enemy grenade rolled to his right flank. Recognizing the immediate risk to the Soldiers and the machine gun, Peter shouted a warning to his comrades while simultaneously covering the grenade with his body. The 20-year-old was killed instantly.
In honor of his sacrifice, Peter was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. "Through his actions, he prevented loss of life or injury to at least three men and enabled his comrades to maintain their fire superiority," reads his official MOH citation. In November 1975, Fort Campbell memorialized Peter by providing his namesake for the new arts and crafts center. It was the last time Michael had visited the installation -- until Sunday.
Remembering, recovering
"Antoinette [my wife] and I were looking online one day and saw a brochure for the Guenette Arts and Crafts Center," said Michael, a native of Upstate New York. "I thought, 'Wow, it'd be nice to go back there and visit.' So I called and I got Patrice [Johnson-Winters] on the phone. She sent me some information and it sort of snowballed after that."
Michael and his wife arrived at Fort Campbell July 20 and were treated the following day to a full day of events, including guided tours of the Guenette Arts and Crafts Center, the Survivor Outreach Services Facility, the Don F. Pratt Museum, Division Headquarters and 2-506th headquarters.
"We got a great reception and hospitality," said Michael. "It was a great tour. We're really happy."
Along with wanting to see how Peter's legacy was thriving after so many decades, Michael came to Fort Campbell to gain more insight about the military career of the brother he lost at age 17. Both Soldier and civilian came together to ensure that he would be successful in both ventures.
While guiding Michael and Antoinette through the arts and craft center, manager Patrice Johnson-Winters explained how the Soldier she had never met had been very much a part of her life since the 1990s when she first began working at the establishment.
"He's still very much a part of this place," she said. "Any time something is misplaced, it's 'Oh, Peter moved it.' When we hear noises, it's just Peter walking around."
After the tour, Johnson-Winters presented Michael with a photo album that outlined what the center had done over the years and how it has continued to thrive. Much to her delight, Michael produced a brown briefcase full of memories -- including a large stack of photographs that told the story of Peter and his fellow Soldiers in the midst of their tour. The pictures hadn't been developed until after the Family had learned of his death.
At the Survivor Outreach Services center, program manager Suzy Yates offered Michael a framed photograph of Peter to hang on the center's remembrance wall, where other Gold Star Families have hung photos of their fallen heroes. Following an informative tour of the Pratt Museum, Capt. Reid presented him with his own copy of his brother's service record. All of these things helped to shed light on his older brother during what Michael referred to as "a sort of trip of healing."
"We saw Larry Taylor, Peter's platoon leader, before we got here," he said. "He was really tight with my brother, and he opened up. He was telling stories I'd never heard before -- how he [Peter] was a real comical character. Just before going into combat, he was always getting everybody loose with jokes and humor. And Larry really counted on that because they were all really uptight."
A hero at home
Michael admitted that, being the younger brother, he didn't get to see as much of Peter's comical side during their childhood in Lansingburgh, N.Y. -- as he was often on the receiving end of the "jokes."
"It was more about shots in the arm, sticking my head in the snow or trying to drown me while swimming," Michael laughed.
Even so, Michael says that Peter was a person that he, their three sisters -- even their mom and dad -- always looked up to.
"He was our hero long before Vietnam," he said.
Before the days of Army green, Peter wore the uniform of an altar boy and of a Boy Scout. When he wasn't hunting and fishing, he played football and pond hockey.
"He didn't sit around and collect dust," said Michael.
Fit and active, he had a bright future ahead -- including a 19-year-old bride with whom he had eloped just weeks before going to Vietnam.
"He was coming back, you know?" said Michael. "He was going to be a smoke jumper so he could still jump [from aircraft] and get paid for it. He'd gotten married just before he left; he planned on coming back."
Grief and understanding
When Peter's Family received news of his death, the blow was severe.
"After the funeral, that was it," said Michael. "Nobody knew how to deal with it."
The loss proved to be too great for their father's weakened heart, and he died a mere nine months later.
"When he left Albany, my father and brother were locking horns over something," said Michael. "So when he went away, he went away mad. My father always regretted that."
For a boy of 17, it was tough to make the connection between a personal loss of such magnitude and a war that the American public viewed as pointless. As the war continued and people cursed and spit at the fortunate Soldiers who made it home alive, Michael's resentment grew. When his Family went to D.C. to accept his brother's award, Michael did not attend.
"The medal was quite an honor, but it's hard to wrap your head around it," said Michael. "When you lose somebody in that way -- where they intentionally died -- you have to process all that. What makes somebody do that when they've got so much going for them at home?"
Michael admits that he struggles to understand his brother's split-second decision to this day. But he also remembers a couple of kids that bullied him when he was a child -- and what he found out when he ran into them years later.
"They told me, 'We didn't really mess with you too much because your brother would speak to us,'" he said. "I never knew that."
It is likely that protective big brother remained under the joking and easygoing exterior -- ready to put himself directly in harm's way in order to keep those with him from suffering.
"The way he was brought up, I'm convinced that it was for the love of his comrades that were in his immediate area," said Michael. "It was for those guys -- it was all about love."
Michael left the installation with new memories to add to his brown briefcase -- a treasure trove of information he hopes to put into a book someday when he feels he's ready. There is plenty to share with his sisters. He also plans to share the stories with his three children, including his son Peter, who will be 22 in December.
"My son, he's got the integrity that my brother had," said Michael. "So it's a good legacy."
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