'TO SERVE, TO SACRIFICE'

WASHINGTON — Words like "duty," "honor" and "heroism" often are tossed around lightly, but Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti made them real in sacrificing his own life to try to save a fellow 10th Mountain Division soldier, President Obama declared Wednesday in giving Sgt. Monti's Medal of Honor to the soldier's parents.

At a White House ceremony attended by top military leaders and dozens of Sgt. Monti's relatives and friends, the president recounted the soldier's story of bravery, how he ran into enemy fire repeatedly to try to rescue a fallen comrade during an intense firefight in Afghanistan in June 2006.

"Do we really grasp the meaning of these values? Do we truly understand the nature of these virtues? To serve, and to sacrifice. Jared Monti knew," Mr. Obama said at the ceremony in the East Room.

Mr. Obama told the story of Sgt. Monti's running into enemy fire to try to save Pfc. Brian J. Bradbury, 22, Lowville, who lay mortally wounded on the ground. Four men in Sgt. Monti's unit died from that day's battle.

"It was written long ago that 'the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet, notwithstanding, go out to meet it.' Jared Monti saw the danger before him. And he went out to meet it," Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Obama gave the medal to Sgt. Monti's parents, Paul and Janet, and the citation accompanying it was read aloud by a military aide, describing the young sergeant's actions. He was from Raynham, Mass., and would have turned 34 this week.

In the audience were Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, former 10th Mountain Division commander, was there, as were Army Secretary Pete Geren and Rep. John M. McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, who will take Mr. Geren's place at the Pentagon next week.

One of Mr. Geren's last official actions will be to honor Sgt. Monti at a Pentagon ceremony today.

Surviving members of the soldier's patrol were there, too, and the president asked them to stand for applause.

Sgt. Monti was part of a 16-man patrol that was doing reconnaissance in preparation for a larger push by the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team. Their mission was to collect as much information as possible without being detected. But the enemy spotted them, and as many as 50 insurgents took them on with explosives and gunfire.

Sgt. Monti called in for artillery support, which arrived after he was wounded. Ultimately, U.S. forces were able to hold their ground.

The Medal of Honor, the highest award given to service members, has been given only twice for service in Afghanistan and has not been given to a living service member in either the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. It has been given fewer than 3,500 times in U.S. history, Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Obama called Thursday's event a "celebration of a young soldier and the people who loved him." And, as many of Sgt. Monti's friends have done, he cited his outgoing yet humble nature. The president recounted stories of Sgt. Monti: as a student, spotting someone eating alone at a lunch table and sitting down to befriend him; receiving care packages on deployment, including fresh clothes, and giving them to Afghan children.

"Compassion. Perseverance. Strength. A love for his fellow soldiers. Those are the values that defined Jared Monti's life — and the values he displayed in the actions that we recognize here today," Mr. Obama said.

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By JOANNA RICHARDS

TIMES STAFF WRITER

FORT DRUM — Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team rear detachment watched from inside the unit's headquarters Thursday afternoon as President Barack Obama awarded the military's highest honor to one of their own, the late Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti.

In a cramped room, about half a dozen soldiers and as many members of the press gathered around a small movie screen as the ceremony presenting the Medal of Honor to Sgt. Monti's parents was broadcast live from the White House about 2 p.m. on the Pentagon's television channel.

Sgt. Monti, Raynham, Mass., died in June 2006 while trying to rescue an injured comrade during a firefight in Afghanistan, advancing three separate times under heavy fire. Both soldiers were killed. It was that selfless rescue attempt that garnered Sgt. Monti an award reserved for acts of conspicuous "gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of ... life above and beyond the call of duty." If he had survived, he would have celebrated his 34th birthday this week.

At the unit's headquarters, the soldiers and reporters watched the televised tribute in silence. A short documentary on Sgt. Monti's life, aired afterward, included interviews with his relatives. A bit of nervous laughter erupted when Sgt. Monti's sister, Niccole, described how her brother once angered a housemate by giving away their kitchen table to someone in need.

"He did what he did because it came from his heart," she said in the video.

When the program ended, the soldiers headed out of the room, stony-faced. A single slap on the back was the only acknowledgment of emotion.

Soldiers helping with the broadcast said one or two of the men who'd attended knew Sgt. Monti personally. Others were newer to the unit. But they, too, were familiar with Sgt. Monti's story.

"I joined the unit two months after he died," Capt. John Cavanagh said. "I was with all the guys who talked about him." He knew some were "pretty devastated" by the loss, he added.

Asked whether the unit's other soldiers would respond with the same courage and selflessness as Sgt. Monti in similar circumstances, Capt. Cavanagh said, "I'd like to think so. But even the best soldiers might not make the same decisions he did. There's only one way to know, and that's in the moment."

A memorial display honoring Sgt. Monti soon will be set up inside the unit's headquarters building, and a sign has been erected at a recreation area outside, christening it "Monti's Place."