Petty Officer Second Class Michael A. Monsoor, a Navy SEAL, was awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor for diving onto a grenade to save his teammates. Monsoor also received the Silver Star for his actions in May during the same deployment in 2006, when he exposed himself to heavy enemy fire to rescue and treat an injured teammate.
WASHINGTON — President Bush posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor Tuesday, a Navy SEAL whose mortal sacrifice in Iraq saved the lives of two fellow SEALs and several Iraqi soldiers.
The fallen SEAL’s parents, George and Sally Monsoor, accepted the honor on their son’s behalf during a White House ceremony. The Medal of Honor, awarded for gallantry in combat exceeding the call of duty, is the nation’s highest military decoration.
Monsoor, a 25 year-old machine gunner with SEAL Team 3, was providing security at a sniper lookout post, Sept. 29, 2006, in Ramadi, when a fragmentation grenade hit his chest and bounced to the floor. Positioned next to the single exit, only Monsoor could have escaped harm. Instead, Monsoor used his body to absorb the blast and shield two nearby SEALs. The SEALs and 8 Iraqi soldiers survived, some with wounds, others unscathed. Monsoor died a half hour later.
“One of the survivors puts it this way: ‘Mikey looked death in the face that day and said, “You cannot take my brothers. I will go in their stead,”’” said Pres. Bush, quoting one of the SEALs saved by Monsoor.
In remarks today, the president characterized the petty officer as an unlikely candidate for the SEALs. As a child, he suffered from asthma attacks and coughing fits that routinely landed him in the hospital. But the asthmatic child resolved to wean himself off his inhaler, strengthening his lungs by challenging his siblings in swimming races. The determined child grew into a young man who eventually completed SEAL training, which Pres. Bush called the “ultimate test of physical endurance. Less than a third of those who begin this training become SEALs, but Mike would not be denied a spot.”
The maritime component of U.S. Special Ops Command, Navy SEALs are expert reconnoiters and stealth warriors, often performing clandestine ops that larger forces cannot conduct undetected. Today Monsoor became the first SEAL to earn the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq, and the second SEAL to receive the award since Sept. 11, 2001.
Monsoor will be inducted tomorrow into the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes, where his name will be engraved alongside some 3,445 recipients of the nation's highest honor.
The petty officer previously was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with combat “V” device, and a Purple Heart before becoming the fourth servicemember to receive the Medal of Honor since the beginning of ops Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
“The Medal of Honor is awarded for an act of such courage that no one could rightly be expected to undertake it,” the president said. “Yet those who knew Michael Monsoor were not surprised when he did.”
