By:Paul J. Condra
Bob Fountain rolled up his pants leg and showed off the quarter inch round divot in his lower right leg.
The 59-year-old Vietnam veteran, who now lives in Baldwin and commands Malverne's American Legion Post 44, said he was flying a Huey chopper on a rescue mission when a bullet entered the helicopter, passed under his left leg, through a bag full of maps and planted itself in his shin.
You heard ping-ping-ping' all over the place,Fountain said.
But it wasn't painful, he said, shrugging. Fountain didn't even realize he had been shot until he felt his toes squishing around in his blood-filled boots. It wasn't until later that day, when the rescue missions were over, that his co-pilot wrenched out the AK-47 slug with tweezers.
If you would have gone to a surgeon, you would have been grounded,he said. He is proud to say that he saved more people than he killed.
Indeed, Fountain is still at it, forging his own anti-establishment path in an effort to bring home the soldiers of overseas' wars: getting our guys back,as he puts it.
Six years ago, Fountain was essential in bringing home the remains of a Merrick man, Sgt. Frederick Burns. Burns was imprisoned in a North Vietnamese camp in 1967 after he was separated from his platoon. He was 19 years old at the time, and the discovery of his body allowed the parents to have a funeral for their only son, and put his memory to rest nearly 30 years later.
It was that feat that led family members of other missing soldiers to contact Fountain.
Right now he's working on bringing home Private Alfred Perry. Perry's brother called Fountain and asked him to help. Fountain said he has been investigating Perry's whereabouts for about four years, and has discovered that Perry died in 1950 along with about 1,000 other U.S. soldiers in the Korean battle at the Chosin Reservoir.
As he showed off the inches of files he has amassed with documents, letters, topographical maps and other articles, Fountain explained that his dealings with the government can be the most frustrating part of his investigations.
The MIA office and the forensics people, they are 100 percent doing their jobs,he said, It's the bureaucrats and the mucky-mucks [who aren't].
Fountain spoke disgustedly of tapped phone calls, intolerable politicians and incompetent investigations.
If the government agencies concentrated on one guy at a time they'd have more luck, said Fountain, pointing out the misinformation spread about Perry.
I found out he didn't die where the government said he died,he said.
The task is tedious and consists of lengthy efforts to contact dozens of people who may, or may not, know something. For example, Fountain has only one photo of Perry with some of the men who may have been with him when he was lost. He said he'll have to start sending the photo out to Korean War veteran groups and hope somebody will be able to identify the other men.
But if it seems daunting, for Fountain, it's a labor of love.
You get hooked on this stuff, believe me,he said.
Wartime legacy
Born in Queens, Robert Fountain started flying helicopters in 1960, when he quit school in California to enroll in the Navy's STAR program which, if he had decided to return to college, would have paid his tuition.
He said he was eager to have the paying job, as he was already working two jobs: I said where do I sign?
