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Ten years ago, after a chance encounter with some young men in camouflage at a heavy metal concert, Joseph Fontenot joined the Army.
One of the men was 19 and in the military, but Fontenot, at age 30, was in one of the performing bands.
Fontenot said he realized that the solider seemed to have more purpose in life than he did.
So he enlisted. And, he said, at first, his parents were against it. “I was their only son, so they objected, but then, my dad realized that with or without their support, I was going to do what I wanted anyway.” Ultimately, he said, his parents thought that if they supported him, he would have a better chance of coming home alive.
Last week, Fontenot, a native of Larose, was named Solider of the Year by Army Times magazine for his “professionalism, compassion, character and dedication to community service.” The award is given annually, one to each member of the five branches of the military.
Fontenot, now a staff sergeant with the 101st Airborne Division and based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was a “metal head,” LTG Gary H. Cheek said before presenting Fontenot with the award in a Washington, D.C., ceremony. “This outstanding, squared away solider you see here before you today, used to have long hair, and was an honest to goodness metal head, which has something to do with a rock band and a guitar.” Prior to joining the Army at age 30, Fontenot was a member of at least two metal bands, Jackknife and Acid Bath. He celebrated his 31st birthday at his first duty station in South Korea. Acid Bath played around the state, he said, but Jacknife was a full-fledged band that toured the country. He no longer plays music, he said, but he does keep up with it.
Today, Fontenot is a decorated veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. “He’s everything a leader wants in an (non-commissioned officer),” Cheek said. “He’s one great leader; a combat veteran, an expert marksman and just completed a successful career at the drill sergeant’s academy.”
Currently, he is with the 3rd battalion, 320th field artillery regiment of the 101st Airborne.
Fontenot says he’s sure he’ll be going back to the Middle East in the future. “It’s a part of the job and when we’re called, we’ll go, and we’ll be ready.” Fontenot spent one year in Baghdad in 2008 and in 2010, he was sent to one of southern Afghanistan’s most dangerous regions. He’s been wounded twice, once while on foot patrol in Iraq.
The Larose staff sergeant was nominated for the award by his peers and Fontenot said about 1,500 soldiers were nominated and initially, he didn’t think anything about it. He started getting excited, he said, when he was notified that he was in the top 5 finalists, and then in the top three.
Part of the award is community service, and Fontenot says he belongs to the Audie Murphy Club, a group that visits veterans’ hospitals and a camp for children with cancer. “We do small things for the vets, like giving them small things most people take for granted, like bedroom slippers, clothing and blankets.
Fontenot is also credited with saving the life of an accident victim in South Carolina last year when the man’s car plunged into a drainage canal. Fontenot, Cheek said, jumped in, through water and mud to get the man out of the car, performed first aid on him and waited with him until local emergency personnel arrived.
In an interview with Army Times, Fontenot said he believes “hero is a huge word.” He said, ”I feel the true hero is our brothers and sisters who don’t come home. It’s not the guys in comic books, or on big screen TV or the guy who throws around the pigskin on a Sunday afternoon.”
“I was just doing my job.”
