SEAL falls on grenade to save comrades

Monsoon65 · 10-13-2006, 16:33

Where do we get men like this?? My prayers to his family.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061013/...vy_seal_killed

Texian · 10-13-2006, 16:40

Good God!

Prayers out to his family and friends.

RIP, Warrior.

CoLawman · 10-13-2006, 22:32

Rest in Peace.

Goggles Pizano · 10-14-2006, 00:55

Rest in peace lad. Thank you for your sacrifice to your team and your country.

incommin · 10-14-2006, 05:52

Words are inadequate! Another hero lost.

Jim

Gypsy · 10-14-2006, 08:17

Agreed, mere words are inadequate when thinking of this SEAL and all the Men and Women who make the ultimate sacrifice. Rest easy, my prayers are with his Brothers and family.

MtnGoat · 10-14-2006, 16:10

Prayers out to his family and friends.

Rest In Peace, Warrior

GratefulCitizen · 03-15-2008, 23:24

Navy SEAL Mike Monsoor to Receive Medal of Honor
By Michael Fumento

SEAL and Petty Officer 2nd Class Mike Monsoor will posthumously receive the nation's highest award, the Medal of Honor. It will be given to his parents in a White House ceremony April 8. The next day there will be a Hall of Heroes Dedication followed by a Navy Memorial Dedication. He died in Sept. 2006 after throwing himself on a hand grenade and thereby probably saving the lives of three of his comrades.
I first wrote about being in combat with Monsoor's unit in Ramadi, Iraq in April of 2006 in my Weekly Standard "New Band of Brothers" article, though he wasn't mentioned by name. He was killed just as I was returning to Ramadi later in the year, and one of the photos I took of him during that first fight graced the cover of the issue containing my subsequent article. I plan to attend and to write about the Medal of Honor Ceremony.

March 15, 2008 07:50 PM

http://www.fumento.com/weblog/archiv...seal_mike.html

<edit>

Note to admin or moderator: please move to appropriate forum.

the squid · 03-18-2008, 07:32

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/0...fhonor_031708/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CfK2BQCIIes

Thank you Mr. Monsoor, for your service and your sacrifice. There are men alive today who owe you their lives.

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."
- General George S. Patton, Jr

82ndtrooper · 03-20-2008, 20:46

SO2 Michael Monsoor, Navy SEAL is awarded the MOH. RIP Sailor, your watch is over and we dearly appreciate your service and your absolute sacrifice.

By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Mar 17, 2008 14:53:40 EDT
SAN DIEGO — A California-based SEAL who threw his body on a grenade to save his comrades in Iraq will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor, a Defense Department official has confirmed.

Master-at-Arms 2nd Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor, of Garden Grove, Calif., was holed up on the roof of a Ramadi house with three other SEALs on Sept. 29, 2006, when an insurgent grenade landed nearby.

Monsoor, a 25-year old with SEAL Team 3, grabbed the grenade and clutched it to his chest. The blast killed him, but his actions, officials said at the time, saved the men on the rooftop.

Monsoor will be the second member of the Navy to receive the Medal of Honor since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, and the first sailor to receive it for combat in Iraq.

Michael Fumento, who’s written about Monsoor and combat operations in Ramadi, reported on his Internet blog over the weekend that Monsoor’s family would receive the posthumous award on the fallen SEAL’s behalf during a White House ceremony April 8.

A Defense Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the award had been approved.

“We understand the decision has been made to give that award,” the official said Monday. However, it’s not clear when the medal would be presented by President Bush, as is tradition, and the White House hasn’t yet made any announcement.

“[The date is] very likely to change,” the Pentagon official said.

A spokeswoman at the Navy Office of Information referred questions to the White House. A call to the White House press office was not immediately returned.

Monsoor, a platoon machine gunner, had received the Silver Star, the third-highest award for combat valor, for his actions pulling a wounded SEAL to safety during a May 9, 2006, firefight in Ramadi.

The Medal of Honor would be the second awarded to a Navy SEAL since 2001.

Last year, the family of the late Lt. Michael P. Murphy, a SEAL officer from Long Island, N.Y., received the medal during an Oct. 22 White House ceremony. Murphy was killed June 28, 2005, along with two other teammates, in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains when their four-man team battled a larger force of Taliban fighters. Eight other Navy SEALs and eight special operations soldiers with a quick-reaction force died when their MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down.

Murphy is the only service member so far awarded the Medal of Honor for combat operations in Afghanistan.

Only two other Medals of Honor have been awarded, so far, and both posthumously for combat heroics during military operations in Iraq.

The first was Army Sergeant 1st Class Paul R. Smith, who died during an April 4, 2003, firefight with insurgent fighters near Baghdad International Airport. Smith was noted for his bravery and quick actions to organize a hasty defense and counter attack during which he fired anti-tank weapons, tossed hand grenades, mounted an armored personnel carrier to fire its .50-caliber machine gun and evacuate three wounded soldiers before he was felled by enemy fire. Officials credited him with killing as many as 50 enemy forces.

Monsoor’s actions closely parallel that of Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, a machine gunner from Scio, N.Y., the second service member to receive the medal for combat actions in Iraq.

Dunham, 22, took his Kevlar helmet and muffled a grenade dropped by an insurgent fighting with him and his fire team in a house near Husaybah on April 14, 2004. He died a week later, April 22, at National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Md. His family received the medal during a Jan. 11, 2007, ceremony at the White House.

sleepyhead4 · 03-20-2008, 21:10

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"

It's truly amazing the caliber of men (and women) that we have serving in the armed forces.

RIP SEAL and my prayers will be with your loved ones.

**Roguish Lawyer** · 03-21-2008, 08:39

RIP

3SoldierDad · 03-21-2008, 09:58

A Hero

Goggles Pizano · 03-21-2008, 10:04

In pace requiescat SO2 Monsoor.

Is anyone else curious why death seems to have become a prerequisite for the MOH?