The final battle

December 15, 2000

FAMILY TREASURE: Evelyn Pró, of Fontana is surrounded by reminders of her brothers, Vietnam War veterans Frankie and Ruben Montaño, both of whom died as a result of the war. Both men's names will soon be on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, thanks to an old friend's effort.Click image for larger photo. Photo by H. LORREN AU Jr./The Orange County Register TO ADD A NAME TO THE MEMORIAL The Department of Defense reviews individual cases of deaths that have occurred months or even years after being wounded in Vietnam. Names are added when it has been determined that a service member has died directly from combat-related wounds. Cancer victims of Agent Orange, and post traumatic stress suicides do not fit the criteria for inclusion upon the Memorial. If you think you know someone who may fit the criteria to have their name added to the wall and you would like more information, these offices can be contacted: ARMY Mortuary Affairs & Casualty Support 2461 Eisenhower Avenue Alexandria, VA 22331-0482 Fax: 703 325-5315 AIR FORCE Executive Office for Inquiries Headquarters Air Force Manpower (PERS-621P) and Personnel Center/DPWCM 550 C Street West Suite 15 Randolph Air Force Base, TX 78150 Fax: 512 565-3805 MARINE Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs, MRC 3280 Russell Road Quanitico, VA 22134-5103 Fax: 703 784-9823 NAVY Navy Personnel Command Casualty Assistance Branch 5720 Integrity Drive Millington, TN 38055-6210 Fax: 901 874-6654

By JOSÉ ALFREDO FLORES
The Orange County Register

Eva Frances Montaño's final wish before her death was for her two sons to have their names engraved on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Montaño died in 1998 and saw only her eldest son, Francisco, on the wall.

Her youngest son, Ruben, was injured in the war and died at Camp Pendleton as a result of the injury. Ruben was left out simply because he died away from Vietnam.

But thanks to the efforts of an old grade-school friend and his sister, Ruben "Ruby" Montaño will finally join his brother on Memorial Day next year, nearly 20 years after the original dedication of the wall.

"My mother always wanted to know why they (the government) didn't want Ruben's name on the wall," said Montaño's sister, Evelyn Pró. "My mother gave her only two sons to this war, and she didn't want Ruben's death to be in vain."

Hector Estrada, a Tucson lawyer and grade-school pal of Ruby, made sure that the younger Montaño would not be forgotten.

Estrada first discovered that the younger Montaño was left out when a replica of the wall made a stop in Tucson in 1991. But he did not decide to take action until Memorial Day 1999.

"I felt I had an obligation to help," said Estrada, who only saw Ruby Montaño sporadically after grade school. "I felt that this thing wouldn't happen on its own. You have to get off your butt and do something. I just wish I did it sooner."

Ruben Montaño died on July 11, 1969, after being mortally wounded in Vietnam. His brother, whom everyone called Frankie, died during a battle in 1967.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) and the Department of Defense set the criteria for the original set of names on the wall to include only those who died in Vietnam.

The criteria since 1982, when the memorial was dedicated, has changed to also include those who died outside of Vietnam as a direct result of injuries sustained in the war, but does not include deaths attributed to Agent Orange. More than 275 names have been added, and Montaño will be one of three added next year.

Estrada called the VVMF and made sure he knew all the criteria, but he could not get the death certificate and medical records required for a name addition without the authorization of Montaño's next of kin.

He started his search with an old newspaper clipping of Montaño's obituary. He searched through directories nationwide and eliminated names of Montaño family members who passed away over the years. The only immediate family member was Evelyn Pró.

Estrada looked in the Tucson phone directory and found Pró's last name listed and called the number. It turned out that the phone was under Pró's name but was used by her cousin who couldn't receive phone service through any other means. Pró was constantly changing phone numbers because of her husband's work that moved them from Arizona to Texas, then to Azusa and Fontana over the past few years. After three months of trying to get in touch with Pró, Estrada finally did.

An 'angel' intervenes

"It seemed like everything fell into place," said Pró, who now lives in Fontana. "I didn't know of any lawyer that could help me when my mother died. Then Hector appeared like an angel sent from above."

Estrada obtained all the documents from Pró that the VVMF needed. And in a process that normally takes years to complete, according to the VVMF, Estrada was able to expedite the procedure and got approval for Montaño's name addition in May, fittingly enough a week after Mother's Day.

"You have to approach this bureaucracy with a 'take no for an answer' attitude," said Estrada, who worked pro bono on the case. "The VVMF doesn't initiate this process. People have to inquire, and as a lawyer you're marshaling facts."

VVMF president and founder Jan Scrugs knows how rare these name additions are.

"You have to understand that the memorial has been up for 18 years," he said. "Most of the cases were resolved in the first two to three years. These cases were cleared up quickly because the memorial became famous overnight. But some cases were left off inadvertently."

Scrugs said that his office receives about 10 inquiries per month, with the receptionist referring most to military branches. After sifting through the applications and eliminating some, the branches submit official requests to the VVMF and Department of Defense. Then a team of researchers and military doctors makes an investigation of each case.

"The memorial is dedicated to everyone who served in the war," Scrugs said.

Ruben Montaño in August was honored during a ceremony in Tucson's El Presidio Park. The Tucson City Council voted unanimously to add his name to a memorial of local war veterans at the park. Frankie's name was already on the wall in Tucson. There, Pró and Estrada met face-to-face for the first time since school.

"Hector is not only a friend," Pró said. "After all he's done for us, he's one of the family now."

Fatal wound

Ruby Montaño and Estrada were best friends in grade school but grew distant when Estrada enrolled in cross-town Pueblo High.

Montaño went on to become a star athlete at Tucson High and played right guard for the 1965 and 1966 state champion football team. He was well-known in his Hollywood neighborhood in Tucson for his guitar playing, great looks and sense of humor.

"No one can compare to him," said Norma Muñoz, Montaño's high school sweetheart and fiancée-to-be before his death. "My whole world shattered when he passed away."

Montaño never considered joining the Army before his brother Frankie, a Marine, was killed in May 1967. Ruben Montaño, who did not have to go to the war since he was the only remaining son in the family, enlisted a month later in the Army and volunteered for Vietnam. He began fighting in October 1968.

"Ruben felt he had to take revenge," said Pró. "He wanted to actually see what Frankie went through. We begged him not to go, but what was going to happen was going to happen."

His stepbrother Larry, an Army paratrooper who grew up in Brea, trained Ruby Montaño for paratrooper duty in Westminister, N.Y. Larry Montaño, who shares the same father as Ruben, has not kept in touch with the family and was unavailable for comment.

Ruby Montaño, like Frankie, spent most of his time on the front line in Vietnam. Frankie was killed by a mortar shell.

Ruby, a rifleman with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 47th Infantry, was hit in the left thigh by a piece of metal from an explosive device that detonated during a battle on "Hamburger Hill." He refused treatment at the time he was hit and went to the aid of his wounded comrades, earning Montaño an Army Commendation Medal for heroism.

Montaño was later taken to Camp Pendleton for treatment. There he had surgery and seemed to be on his way to recovery -- he was able to walk with a cane. But a fragment was left in his thigh, according to the Army death certificate, causing complications. He died of cardiac and pulmonary arrest about a month after the surgery. He was 19.

Eva Frances Montaño, before her death, wanted to honor her fallen son by having one of her grandchildren named after Ruben.

Pró named her daughter Diana Ruby after Ruben's nickname. Muñoz also honored Montaño by making sure that one of her great-nephews, Ruben Jacob Castillo, was named after Ruben.

"There's a little bit of Ruben in me," Diana Ruby Belmontes said. "In the way I sing, in the way I try to cheer up my mom. I feel that in that way I can give back to her after all the pain she went through."