I remember hearing this story on the news and it being especially difficult to think about because my brother, Nathan, was getting ready to enlist in the military (not long after we lost our sister).
The Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military tribute, was awarded posthumously to Petty Officer Second Class Michael A. Monsoor on April 8th by President Bush. The Navy Seal, 25, sacrificed his life by diving on a grenade to save two other Navy Seals and three Iraqi Army troops in Iraq in September 2006.
“The Medal of Honor is awarded for an act of such courage that no one could rightly be expected to undertake it,” President Bush said, quoted by the New York Times. “In that terrible moment,” Bush continued, “he had two options — to save himself, or to save his friends. For Mike, this was no choice at all. He threw himself onto the grenade, and absorbed the blast with his body.”
Petty Officer Monsoor, who joined the Navy in 2001, was no stranger to heroism. He was also awarded posthumously the Bronze Star for “his extraordinary guidance, zealous initiative and total dedication to duty” and the Silver Star for pulling a fellow soldier to safety under enemy fire.
A tearful President Bush presented the Medal of Honor, which was created during the Civil War for acting beyond the call of duty and has been awarded almost 3,500 times, to the parents of Petty Officer Monsoor. He was inducted into the Pentagon Hall of Heroes on Wednesday and is the first member of the Navy and the third member of the Armed Forces to receive the award for his bravery in Iraq.
My heart and thoughts are with his family.
No comments:
Post a Comment