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According to the Snopes website, on September 29th of 2006, a 25-year-old Petty Officer 2nd Class named Michael A. Monsoor, MA2, was killed during military operations in enemy-held territory at Ar Ramadi, Iraq. He unselfishly defended the lives of his fellow men by shielding them from an enemy hand grenade thrown in their midst, by throwing his body on top of the grenade, sacrificing his own life in savings his fellow Seals.
His act of bravery and heroism is best described in the final two paragraphs of a Summary of Action (SOA) regarding the circumstances of his actions and his death:
While vigilantly watching for enemy activity, an enemy fighter hurled a hand grenade onto the roof from an unseen location. The grenade hit him in the chest and bounced onto the deck. He immediately leapt to his feet and yelled, "grenade" to alert his teammates of impending danger, but they could not evacuate the sniper hide-sight in time to escape harm. Without hesitation and showing no regard for his own life, he threw himself onto the grenade, smothering it to protect his teammates who were lying in close proximity. The grenade detonated as he came down on top of it, mortally wounding him.
Petty Officer Monsoor's actions could not have been more selfless or clearly intentional. Of the three SEALs on that rooftop corner, he had the only avenue of escape away from the blast, and if he had so chosen, he could have easily escaped. Instead, Monsoor chose to protect his comrades by the sacrifice of his own life. By his courageous and selfless actions, he saved the lives of his two fellow SEALs and he is the most deserving of the special recognition afforded by awarding the Medal of Honor.
In April of 2008, Michael Monsoor, who had been previously awarded the Silver Star for his actions in a incident on May 9th of 2006, when he and another SEAL pulled a wounded fellow team member to safety (amidst gunfire), was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. His funeral, which according to the words of President George H.W. Bush, was attended "by nearly every SEAL on the West Coast", was held on October 12th of 2006 at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego. As seen near the end of the tribute video (linked to YouTube below), during Monsoor's funeral service, as the casket was taken from the hearse to the gravesite, fellow SEAL's lined up in two's to slap and embed the gold Tridents ( the pin, seen below, awarded for successful completion of SEAL Qualification Training ) from their uniforms onto the top of Monsoor's coffin.
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You're an 18 or 19 year old kid.
You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965. LZ Xray , Vietnam .
Your Infantry Unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there,
listening to the enemy machine guns,
and you know you're not getting out.
Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.
As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see a Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.
And, he kept coming back...... 13 more times..... and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.
Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died August 20, 2008 at the age of 80, in Boise , ID ......May God rest his soul.....
Ivan W. Bartling
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