Jared Christopher Monti

Jared Monti in Afghanistan

Jared Christopher Monti (born September 20, 1975 in Abington , Massachusetts , USA ; † June 21, 2006 in Gowardesh , Nuristan , Afghanistan ) was a sergeant first class of the United States Army who was fatally wounded during a mission in the war in Afghanistan and posthumously received the Medal of Honor , the US armed forces' highest honor for valor.

Early life

Jared Monti grew up in Raynham , Massachusetts and graduated from Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School in 1994 . He had already enrolled in the Army in March 1993 and completed its basic training at Fort Sill , Oklahoma , where he was also trained as an advanced observer . He completed further training and missions abroad in Bosnia and Kosovo before he was deployed as Staff Sergeant of 3rd Squadron , 71st Cavalry Regiment , 3rd Brigade Combat Team , 10th US Mountain Division , in Afghanistan in February 2006.

Death and Medal of Honor

In June 2006 he was deployed as the deputy commander of a team of 16 soldiers, as well as the head of the observation team of this unit, in the Afghan province of Nuristan to investigate possible enemy accumulations in the Gremen Valley , near the Pakistani border. On the evening of June 17, the team was dropped off at Baz-Gal and marched through the mountainous terrain for the next three days, moving only at night and in the early morning and taking up observation positions during the day. On June 20, the team stopped on a mountain over 2,600 m high, called Mountain 2610 , as it offered a good observation position over the surrounding area. The next morning, when their food supplies were seriously scarce, they called a Black Hawk by radio , which at around 1:30 p.m. dropped new supplies at a point 150 m away and then flew away again. When collecting the food, Spc. Max Noble saw a male local in the distance and found through binoculars that he was watching her with a binocular , then picked up a backpack and moved on. Therefore they secured their camp more spaciously for the coming night.

At around 6.45 p.m., the US unit from the north and northwest was attacked by around 50 Taliban fighters and shot at massively. Monti ordered his men to take cover and return fire before calling for artillery and air support by radio . He realized that a group of Taliban was trying to flank his position and repulsed them with gunfire and a hand grenade. In the meantime one US soldier had fallen and another seriously wounded, it was Spc. Brian Bradbury, he was lying exactly between his own and enemy troops in an open area. The commander of the sniper team then wanted to rescue the wounded man, but was held back by Monti because he considered it too dangerous. Instead, Monti tried to reach Bradbury himself, but was thrown back only a few meters in front of him by powerful MG and RPG fire. A second attempt also failed due to the heavy fire of the Taliban, which is why Monti made a third attempt and stormed forward again, but lost both legs due to the explosion of a grenade and died shortly afterwards. Around the same time, the requested artillery fire and air strikes began, killing 22 Taliban and displacing the rest. Spc. Bradbury died a short time later on the way to the field hospital.

Jared Monti was posthumously promoted to Sergeant First Class on June 22, 2006 and buried at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, Massachusetts . On September 17, 2009 he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. President Barack Obama presented the award to the parents of Jared Monti during a ceremony in the White House .

A training facility in Fort Sill, a bridge in Raynham and the Combat Outpost Monti in Afghanistan were named after him in his memory .

Web links

Commons : Jared Christopher Monti - Collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Monti, Jared Christopher
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American soldier
DATE OF BIRTH	20th September 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH	Abington, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH	June 21, 2006
Place of death	Gowardesh, Nuristan