Rambo Memorial Bridge dedication set for May 25

The Staff Sgt. Arthur J Rambo Memorial Bridge dedication has been scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday, May 25, at Fred Brown Pavilion in the Riverfront Park.

Tony Smith, a close friend of Arthur, will officiate as the presenter. Along with family from across the state, attendees will include many of Art’s classmates as well as several members from Art’s unit of the 11th Armored Cavalry, Black Horse Regiment. 

The family invites recipients of the Libby High School Arthur J Rambo Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship was established by his parents, Howard and Viola Rambo in 1970 and has continued for the past 56 years.

Art Rambo grew up on a farm south of Libby, Montana, milking cows each morning and bucking bales of hay in the summers. With his friends, among other things, he would fish, hunt and play baseball. He played Little League, Babe Ruth and American Legion ball. He played first base on the Lee Gehring Field located near the bridge which will bear his name.

Besides athletics and academics, Art was accomplished musically. 

Rambo graduated in the top of his class in 1963. That class was the last to graduate from the old high school on Lincoln Boulevard near downtown Libby. Following graduation, Art enrolled in Carroll College in Helena. It was here that he met his wife, Helen Ryan, while both were singing in the Carrollers, the music choir known as the “Singing Ambassadors of Carroll College.”

They married in 1967. Rambo earned a degree in Mathematics at Carroll. Art and Helen then relocated to South Bend, Indiana, where he enrolled in the University of Notre Dame and graduated cum laude with a degree in Chemical Engineering,

Prior to graduation, the Army approached Art with an offer to join that would place him in a position to advance as an officer. He was, at the same time, being recruited by Texaco Oil Company to put his chemical engineering degree to practical use. 

Texaco also guaranteed a deferment. Art and Helen were expecting their first child within the month. After much deliberation, Art felt he could serve his country just as honorably working with Texaco as by entering the United States Army.

They traveled to Colorado to begin his career. Here his first daughter was born that June. He was working as a roust-about in the oil fields of Golden, Colorado, when he received a misguided draft notice. While he had two deferments (occupational as well as paternal), he chose not to let Texaco fight to keep the promise they had given him in Indiana. 

He told his wife Helen, “If I don’t go, someone else will have to go in my place. That’s the price you pay for living here.”

Instead of entering the Army on the fast track to become an officer, Arthur J Rambo reported to Ft. Lewis as a newly drafted raw buck private. By the time he left his wife, flying off to Vietnam, he was a Staff Sergeant. At his funeral, the military representative told Art’s dad that only 1% of 1% rise through the ranks as fast as Art did. Art was deployed and assigned to the Black Horse Regiment of the 11th Armored Cavalry as the Section Chief of an M-109, 155 mm Self-Propelled Howitzer in command of a section.

Art promised his wife, “Don’t worry, I won’t be a hero.” He kept his promise. He died simply doing his job.

Only two months after his second daughter was born, Art was killed in action. For the bravery under fire that Art exhibited Thanksgiving night 1969, he was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, the Vietnamese Presidential Citation and the Silver Star.

Helen, his wife, prior to her death, asked that Art not be made a hero. Rather, she wanted him to be remembered as the man he was, remembered for who he was - a warm, caring, talented, smart, resourceful, dedicated, committed husband, father, son, brother and friend.

A close family friend wrote these words about Art in a poem shortly after hearing of his death in 1969. This quote is on the historic memorial plaque placed in Riverfront Park close to the Kootenai River.
“I loved him, I mourned him, and now I shall live as he lived. What greater tribute could we pay him?”