Montana Senate honors Vietnam soldier from Libby in midst of political dispute • Daily Montanan

In the midst of a political battle at the start of the 2025 Montana Legislature, Sen. Mike Cuffe said Wednesday he wanted to present a bill to honor a fallen Vietnam war soldier from Libby.

Cuffe, R-Eureka, said it’s his eighth and last session, and he wanted to offer a bill to pay tribute to the late Staff Sgt. Arthur J. Rambo, who, he said, was nothing like the aggressive movie character.

“Rambo’s personality was 100% the opposite of the man in the movie,” Cuffe said. “There’s a very caring, giving man.”

The bill describes Rambo as a family man who was active in his community, in baseball and talent shows, and in college, sang in the Carroll College Carrolleers, where he met his wife, Helen Ryan.

After he started working with the family, Cuffe mulled the “wrangling,” “elbowing,” and “negotiating about one thing or another” that might be needed to get the bill passed.

But the political dispute in the Senate, over the makeup of committees, slowed its work, and it opened a window for the bill, one Cuffe believes has become even more necessary.

“This is a feel-good kind of a bill,” he said. “This is a very honorable kind of a bill. This is a bill, I believe, that is urgently needed.”

Rambo was drafted into service and didn’t seek an exemption for which he was eligible, the bill said, and Cuffe said some lawmakers were part of the draft too. In 1969, Rambo arrived in Vietnam, and a few months later, his unit came under attack.

“Staff Sgt. Arthur J. Rambo worked heroically under fire to save his crew members and their military assets,” said the bill. “He sustained fatal injuries and was awarded the Silver Star.

“ … He was survived by his wife, Helen, his daughter, Kerry Lynn, his newborn daughter, Amy Denise, and his extended family.”

Wednesday, after senators in a committee took another split vote related to how they would manage committees, they approved the measure to create a memorial bridge in Libby for Rambo on a 50-to-0 vote.

Cuffe said it would name the Highway 37 bridge that enters Libby from the north, and the sign would have language that honored Rambo along with other fallen veterans.

“In spite of all of our differences, our factions, our personalities,” Cuffe said, the bill “would help unite us, help us all feel human compassion.”

He also said he believes Rambo would appreciate it.

On the first day of the session, Monday, the Senate took a vote that upset a plan Republican leadership had planned for how committees would work, and some senators have canceled committee meetings or are holding “organizational” and “educational” meetings instead.

In its rules committee Wednesday, senators took another vote, this one to upend Monday’s proposal. Thursday, the full Senate will take up the matter, which affects the way minority Democrats are distributed among committees.

The Senate is currently under temporary rules, which distribute Democrats in a way the minority party wants, and with support, at least for the time being, from a small group of Republicans.

The Senate could make a change Thursday by adopting permanent rules, supported by Republican leadership, or it could operate under its temporary rules for the session, as it has in the past.