A new Police Chief has been named in Brookfield. The Police Commission's recommendation to promote Major Jay Purcell was unanimously approved by the Board of Selectmen on Monday. He will begin that job January 1st.
Chief Montgomery will retire December 31st after 16 years leading the Brookfield Police Department. For his service in Vietnam, Montgomery was awarded two Purple Hearts and the Navy Cross, America's second highest medal for "extreme gallantry and heroism in combat."
On 8 June 1969, while Second Lieutenant Montgomery was leading the advance party to a previously selected battalion command post site, the Marines were pinned down in an open rice paddy by a heavy volume of mortar, antitank rocket, and automatic weapons fire from enemy troops occupying well-fortified emplacements. Realizing the need for immediate action, Second Lieutenant Montgomery crawled close to the enemy lines and, pinpointing several principal sources of hostile fire, stood in full view of the enemy soldiers as he initiated an aggressive assault against the nearest machine-gun position, destroying it and silencing the fire from that sector. Although seriously wounded during this action, and suffering intense pain, he again braved the enemy fusillade to single-handedly destroy a machine-gun position occupied by several of the enemy. Weakened by loss of blood and the severity of his wounds, he was unable to continue his combat efforts.
The citation continues by saying that his heroic and determined actions so inspired his vastly outnumbered men that they surged forward and fought through the enemy lines. By his courage, aggressive fighting spirit and unfaltering devotion to duty in the face of grave personal danger, Second Lieutenant Montgomery contributed significantly to the defeat of the enemy force and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.
Montgomery went on to serve 26 years as a special agent with the FBI, and interviewed President Ronald Reagan after he was shot in 1981.
Montgomery was inducted into the state to the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame for his post-military achievements. He is a founding member of the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, which created the Armed Forces Family Scholarship and Assistance Fund.
