RIP SFC Jared C. Monti

Regardless of your feelings about the war on terror I would ask that everyone remember this American hero today.  President Obama will be honoring him today with a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor.  It is men like this one that we need to ensure our children and our children's children learn of and that they know the true honor that these men have brought to themselves, their families, their branch and their country.  Again I say, RIP SFC Jared C. Monti.

The full story from the Wall Street Journal.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will award cavalryman Jared C. Monti a posthumous Medal of Honor on Thursday for repeatedly braving enemy fire to rescue a wounded comrade in the Afghan mountains, the first such decoration presented by this president.
During a Taliban attack, Sgt. First Class Monti twice ran into the open to try to retrieve the wounded man, only to be forced back by rocket-propelled-grenade and machine-gun fire. Sgt. Monti, 30 years old, of Raynham, Mass., was cut down on his third try and died at the scene.
"It was pure courage and love for his soldier," said Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Cunningham, 29, of Whitingham, Vt., a sniper who was in the firefight.
The president is scheduled to present the award to Sgt. Monti's parents, Paul and Janet Monti, in the East Room of the White House.
The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest award for military valor, reserved for those who risk their lives with gallantry beyond what duty requires. Sgt. Monti will be the 3,448th recipient since Congress established the medal during the Civil War. President George W. Bush awarded five such medals for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all posthumously. He awarded others for prior conflicts.
Mr. Obama is deepening U.S. involvement in Afghanistan while winding it down in Iraq. He will soon face the decision of whether to deploy more troops to Afghanistan on top of 21,000 he has already approved. Public opinion toward the war, meanwhile, is souring.
Sgt. Monti enlisted in the Army at 17. Over the years, he accumulated a chestful of medals, but he rarely spoke of them. His father didn't know his son had received a bronze star until he found it in his son's drawer, according to report from ABC News.
The action that claimed Sgt. Monti's life came on June 21, 2006, in Nuristan Province along the volatile Pakistan border. Sgt. Monti, then a staff sergeant, was commanding a 16-man patrol from the 3rd Squadron of the 71st Cavalry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division.
The squad was supposed to position itself on a mountaintop to call in artillery and air support for a larger offensive, but the big operation was delayed. A helicopter sent to resupply the men apparently drew the attention of a Taliban force that first numbered around 30 but steadily grew larger, according to Sgt. Cunningham.
"They just kept running down the mountain," Sgt. Cunningham said in an interview. "They swarmed into a position where they could shoot at us."
The Taliban split into two groups to flank the Americans troops and came within 50 yards.
Sgt. Monti called for mortar fire, artillery and air strikes, then realized that one of his men, Pvt. Brian Bradbury, was lying wounded and exposed to enemy fire. During a lull in the shooting, the soldiers could hear Pvt. Bradbury calling out that he was unable to move.
Sgt. Monti tightened the chin strap on his helmet and made three attempts to retrieve the private. The distance was short, perhaps 20 yards, but the grenades and gunfire were intense. "I'm going to get him," Sgt. Cunningham recalled Sgt. Monti saying.
On the third attempt, a rocket-propelled grenade hit Sgt. Monti in the legs. As he lay dying, he asked Sgt. Cunningham to tell his parents that he loved them. Soon after, U.S. artillery and bombs ended the fight.
"Going out there to get his soldier...instilled so much courage in me and all our guys to continue to fight," Sgt. Cunningham said.
Medics eventually reached Pvt. Bradbury alive. But he and one of his rescuers died when the hoist that held them to the helicopter gave way.
The Army promoted Sgt. Monti posthumously to sergeant first class.