Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti

I'll be there in 10 minutes. I'm still on the move. He was a real soldier; he did what you're supposed to do. A very large force of Taliban insurgents, estimated at somewhere over 60-- there were 16 of them, so it was basically a 4 to 1 ratio-- [gun firing] attacked from two different sides. Jared got everybody down in positions, but there was someone missing, and that was Brian Bradbury. Brian had been hit by an RPG, and Jared started out from behind his rock to get Brian. He got within a meter of him, and the fire was so heavy it drove him back behind a place of cover. [explosion] He tried a second time but only took a few steps, and again, they were zeroing in and the fire was so heavy he had to get behind a rock. He then decided to try a third time, so he got everybody to give him cover fire, and he took about two steps before he was hit with an RPG and killed. [♪solemn music playing♪] When he went down, they tell me that he did two things: He said the Our Father and made peace with his Lord, and then he said, "Tell my family I love them." And he passed. He followed the Soldier's Creed to the letter. Trying to save Bradbury was the right thing to do. Not letting Cunningham go save him was the right thing to do. That's all there was; it was the right thing to do, and that's the way Jared was. I haven't seen you in a while. I knew Jared was a wonderful kid. I knew that he was humble, I knew that he liked to help people, but I never realized the magnitude of it, ever, until all these people called me or emailed me or talked to me on the phone or at his funeral. Then I began to realize what a giant this little guy was. The phone rang, and there was a woman on the phone, and she said, "Are you Paul Monti?" "Yes." "Father of Jared Monti?" "Yes." "Well, there's someone here that would like to speak to you." And she handed the phone to the president, and he said, "Hello, Mr. Monti." "The nation is very proud of your son, and I'm very proud of your son," "and I know that you're very proud of your son." And I said, "Yes, sir, I am." And he said, "Well, I want to inform you that your son has been cleared by the Secretary of the Army" "and the Secretary of Defense to receive the Medal of Honor." I have that tremendous feeling of pride, but I still can't get over not having my son because I would give all of this up--all of it, everything--just to have him back, just to be able to hug him one more time. Uh-huh. [♪solemn music playing♪]