By Bill Forry
Managing Editor

Sergeant Brian Fountaine enlisted in the Army five years ago, before the attacks of September 11, because he wanted to be a Boston firefighter, just like his dad, Paul.

Today, that childhood dream is over. Ahead lies a far more ambitious challenge for this 24 year-old man who has lost his legs, but not his fighting spirit.

On June 8, Fountaine was hit and nearly killed by an IED - an improvised explosive device - that detonated when his Humvee's front tires triggered two 155-millimeter artillery shells. The incident happened about 15 miles north of Baghdad, as Fountaine and his unit were patrolling one of Iraq's busiest- and deadliest- highways.

The device that mangled his legs, and stripped a limb from his driver on the seat next to him, was the fifth IED that Fountaine has survived in the last three years. After completing one year-long tour of duty in Iraq, Fountaine decided to return for a second tour last December. He knew he was pressing his luck.

"I kind of expected it, because I volunteered to go on so many different missions," Fountaine explained in an interview with the Reporter this week from his temporary home, Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. "We were getting hit real hard. I was hoping I'd get through this tour without getting hurt. But I knew I was out of luck. I'd had a lot of close calls, firefights and stuff. I was pushing my luck too much."

It was Fountaine's devotion to his men, particularly the young ones, that compelled him to return, he says.

"I had just recently become a sergeant," Sgt. Fountaine told the Reporter. "I liked leading men and having these guys trust their lives to me. I made a really strong bond with my soldiers. And I didn't like some of the other [non-commissioned officers] we had, so I made the decision to re-enlist."

Fountaine says he knew he was one of the only experienced tank commanders in his unit- attached to the 4th infantry division, active duty Army that rotated back to Iraq last December. Fountaine first went to Iraq in April 2003 as part of the initial invasion force in country and "was one of the few who had seen in-your-face combat before."

"I'd already been there before and I knew we had a lot of new guys that didn't know what they were doing," he says.

On the day of the attack, Fountaine should have been safely ensconced in the 72-ton tank that he and his men typically ride in. Instead, he and two other soldiers were patrolling in an armored Humvee truck, newly equipped with a special jamming device that was designed as a counter-measure to prevent a radio-controlled IED from hitting his convoy.

Trouble was, the artillery shells that blew up Fountaine's truck were triggered by pressure-plates that relied on the weight of the Army vehicle to reap havoc.

"To me, it's the most dangerous kind, because you don't need someone there as a triggerman. You just set the device and leave. The tanks we've been losing have all been lost that way."

Still, Fountaine says that he and his comrade would likely have been unhurt in their typical tank transport.

Instead, their much more vulnerable truck took a direct hit, flinging Fountaine through the air and face-first into the Iraqi clay.

"I stayed conscious through the whole thing," Fountaine said. "I remember everything that happened. I remember the blast, getting thrown from your truck. I heard my driver screaming and tried to get up to help him and I realized I couldn't move. I looked down and saw my feet were all mangled. And, then it hits you: 'I'm hit.'"

"My gunner gets down, he's a young kid and he knew what to do. But he didn't know what to do because he was panicking. I had to put tourniquets on both my legs to stop the bleeding. I put both on and started to pull an aide bag apart to put an IV in my arm."

Finally, more help arrived on the scene and quickly got Fountaine and his other injured solider med-evaced to an Army field hospital, where he finally lost consciousness. He woke up several days later in a hospital in Germany. After he was stabilized, he'd also survived two blood clot scares and a collapsed lung, Fountaine finally made it to Walter Reed's intensive care unit, where his legs where further amputated on June 20.

Only one month after his terrible injury, Fountaine was actually released to an adjacent convalescence home two weeks ago, where he expects to stay for the next several months as he endures a rigorous physical therapy regimen at the hospital. His parents, firefighter Paul Fountaine, who lives in Dorchester, and his mother Roberta Quimby, can stay there too, for free.

Last week, however, Brian had a slight setback: He fell out of his wheelchair and broke his stitches, requiring another stay in the hospital. That's where he was Monday, when President George Bush came to pay him and other injured vets a courtesy call.

"We didn't talk about the war, or anything military," Fountaine says. "He asked me how I was feeling and he joked about the Red Sox, because I always have my hat with me."

Someone might have cautioned the president not to mention the war in Iraq. Fountaine says that he, like many other injured soldiers, are angry about their Iraq experience and aren't afraid to tell the president or anyone else about it.

"My guys ask me all the time: 'Are we just riding around waiting to get blown up?' And I'd always say, 'No, shut up, that's not our mission.' But, you've got to sit back and ask yourself, what is our mission?"

In Fountaine's opinion, fighting a surrogate war on behalf of the Iraqi people will never pay off.

"They've been at war with themselves and others for a thousand years," he told the Reporter. "There's blood hatred between the Shia and Sunnis. They take it very seriously. It's going to take a lot of work and I don't know if it will work.

"I think we need to get the guys out of there. There's more and more guys getting killed, and what's the purpose?"

For now, Fountaine's energies are less focused on the future of the war than on his own monumental challenge: Learning to walk on two prosthetic legs. It's a mission that Fountaine insists will be realized within the year.

"A lot of guys here are sulky and sad. But, you've got to realize that even though you're not the same guy you used to be, there's people here to help. There's different things you can do to get back to having a normal life," says Sgt. Fountaine.

In the near term, he's looking forward to a return trip to Boston sometime this fall. And, also to a white-water rafting trip in the Grand Canyon and a side trip to Las Vegas that is planned for the fall. Fountaine said the outing is planned by the "awesome" Wounded Warrior Project, which works closely with the Walter Reed patients. Fountaine says folks back home in Boston who want to help vets like him should go to their website, http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org

"I'm completely confident that as soon as I start walking on my new legs, I'll be one of those guys who'll do it. I'll try to keep a positive attitude. You've got to put your head down and keep pushing," he says.

"It's always about the patient and what they do with it. Some guys quit. The fighters keep fighting."