Section of US-12 to be renamed after Vietnam War Staff Sergeant

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Section of US-12 to be renamed after Vietnam War Staff Sergeant

 

James Bondsteel, the Vietnam War staff sergeant after whom a section of U.S. 12 will be named. (Photo: Wikimedia)

The Michigan House of Representatives recently approved legislation by Rep. Eric Leutheuser, MI-Hillsdale, to rename a portion of U.S. 12 in honor of local Medal of Honor recipient James Bondsteel.

The House gave its unanimous approval on March 1 to rename U.S. 12 within the city boundaries of Jonesville as the “James Bondsteel Memorial Highway.”

Bondsteel grew up in Hillsdale County and served as a staff sergeant in the Vietnam War. He later worked in the Veterans Administration as a counselor at the regional office in Anchorage, Alaska until his death in a trucking accident in April 1987.

Donovan Kolness served in the same platoon and fought in the four-hour long firefight on May 24, 1969, for which Staff Sgt. Bondsteel would receive both the Medal of Honor and a Purple Heart. Kolness detailed Bondsteel’s actions that day in an interview with the Alaska Post in April 2000.

“Our reconnaissance platoon had stumbled into a battalion-plus size base camp of maybe 600 to 800 North Vietnamese. They were getting the snuff kicked out of them before Bondsteel’s platoon came up for support,” Kolness said.

Not only were Bondsteel and his men outnumbered, but a series of fortified underground bunkers also stood in their way. Bondsteel rallied his and other platoons to advance and personally silenced ten enemy bunkers and a machine gun nest.

“He dove into them with a grenade and his M-16 blaring. Then he’d go on to the next one, blowing these bunkers up left and right” Kolness said. “During the fight, our company commander was wounded in hand-to-hand combat, and Bondsteel, somehow, I don’t know how he showed up there with all that was going on, saved our company commander that day, also.”

Kolness said it was Bondstreet’s passion that drove him to heroism.

“He couldn’t stand to see another soldier get hurt,” Kolness said. “I don’t know if he was that much of a combat expert or not, but he was driven by his passion.”

Rep. Leutheuser hopes renaming the highway will honor the courageous service of Bondsteel and all veterans who sacrifice for our country.

“Most of us will never serve in uniform, but we can encourage those who do. We can pay tribute to those who came before and honor those who will follow by enabling this town to say, with well earned pride, here lived a hero,” Leutheuser said on the House floor.

The bill now goes to the Michigan Senate for consideration.