Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti - Medal of Honor Operation Enduring Freedom

SGT Hawes

We only moved during limited visibility hours of darkness - dusk and dawn - because they wanted us to make the climb covertly and we were such a large element that it was very difficult to do to begin with, but the ridge line was so narrow and restricted, trying to move 16 guys up it covertly was almost impossible but somehow we managed it. But it took us two days to climb it and we only moved during hours of darkness - dawn, dusk, throughout the night - and once again daylight, we would just hunker down, watch the local area and surrounding houses in the valleys.

SGT Hawes

Once they called and told us that the air assault was being delayed - I forget what it was, 48 hours, 72 hours, something like that - we were like, what about our resupply? And at that point we were getting really low on food, water and batteries to sustain ourselves for another 48 or 72 hours but they informed us no, our resupply is still coming.

Since there was 16 of us at the position, 12 of us picked up and moved out to collect resupply and kept four field team to maintain eyes on our objective and I was the first person back in carrying some of the resupply, and as soon as I got back in our medic, SPC Noble goes "we're being watched." I was like "what do you mean we're being watched?" and he got out our spotting scope and he pointed out and I saw locals looking up at us with binoculars and regular Afghans don't have binoculars in Afghanistan, there's no purpose for them - bird watching is not popular. So we watched them for a little bit and he finally got up and readied a fire mission in case we could get PID on them (positive identification) and he finally stood up and he had a little light bag with him and binoculars and just disappeared into a draw heading slightly uphill out of sight towards the higher part of the ridge, and he was still above us, but we never saw him after that.

SGT Hawes

We were shaken up by being observed by that guy, and SSG Monti, SSG Cunningham, and myself we actually at the most defensive point of our position, next to these boulders, and we were discussing doubling our guard shifts for the night because of that reason. We had our park position set up, but because of the incident with the guy watching us with the binoculars, we were in the process of discussing doubling our guard shift to increase the security by 50 percent for the night because of that situation. And it was while we were talking and discussing that very subject we were attacked.

SGT Hawes

It started off with some RPG's flying overhead immediately followed by heavy machine gun fire and it was, right from the beginning it was an incredibly heavy assault, with gunfire just pouring down on us. And it completely pinned us down and happened so quickly and abruptly that some of our guys literally had their weapons shot out of their hands. A couple of them had their weapons just a few feet from them cause we just got done eatin', and the fire was so intense they couldn't make it a few feet to their rifles. They had to just seek cover, and the cover was on my end of the division with these boulders we had and a small stone wall where Sgt. Lybert was they'd try to get back to that for cover but some of the guys, the fire was so intense they weren't able to make it the few feet to their rifles - a few of them had their rifles shot out of the hands - Spc. Garner being one of them, he put his hand on his rifle, and as soon as he put his hand on his rifle, a machine gun bullet ripped through the stock of it and knocked it out of his hands. I'd spent a year in Iraq and at that point I'd been in Afghanistan five months, and I'd never seen anything in an opening barrage near that heavy.

SSG Cunningham

The intensity of the firefighting, a 15-meter area, in that firefight, one meter is like a mile to move in a way, because all of the enemy being focused on just 15 meters to shoot at.

SGT Hawes

He told him, you know, if he stuck his head up to assess the situation as detailed as they wanted it, then he was dead - he would have caught it for sure. The only time we were exposed around the rock was to return fire. Monti was, you know we were reserving the impacts of our stuff so we had to - at the time, I was using the grenade launcher and firing at the enemy as they advanced, when I would fire Monti would be able to get up and get pretty much his best looks because I was providing covering fire for him to look and assess the situation but it was so heavy that if we weren't shooting, the fire was so intense that you couldn't look.

SGT Hawes

Right from the beginning we could tell they had a support by fire, and that's an element of men just positioned to stay still and provide machine gun fire to keep us pinned down so we can't move. And while their support by fire position kept our heads down, they had at least two maneuver elements that advanced on our position and tried to overrun us. So under their own machine gun fire they had one or two more elements trying to assault us and trying to overrun us. And they got really close, they got really close to accomplishing that. As an example of how close that they got to us, you could hear them shouting their orders to their guys... yeah, it was easy to hear them talk - they were really close, they got within five meters of our nearest position.

SGT Hawes

He responds to our call and I'll give him all the credit in the world - he was as calm as you can be. He let us know that he was hit, and that he couldn't move, but he wasn't hollerin' and he wasn't screaming, and he was staying quiet, and would only talk to answer our questions. He stayed as calm as you can be - I couldn't be prouder of the kid. And once he realized he was out there Monti made the decision that he was going for him and he passed off the radio to Sgt. Grezecki and told him you're Chaos 3-5 now which was Monti's call sign, and he discussed with me, we worked out how we would provide covering fire for Monti to try and go out there and make it to Bradbury. So we hollered at the rest of the guys that the plan was Monti was going for him, everybody down laid the covering fire - those that could shoot at the moment - and there wasn't many of us. Some rifles were shot, some weren't able to get them, so we were low on the actual shooting portion of guys that actually had rifles available. I can't remember exactly how we signaled it, if we did a count-off or what, but we all started firing and Monti made the run for it.

SSG Cunningham

There was a lull in fire where we heard a "yeah" - it was very faint - so we knew he was still out there. At that point word spread real quick to everybody that was engaged that he was still out there, and you know, he's still alive. And that word instantly got to Monti, and once he realized that Bradbury was the guy that was unaccounted for, he tried to set the conditions so that he would be able to go out there and get him. He's like "I'm going to get him," and we were like "Roger that." So, we all raised our rifles and started giving cover fire and he ran out there.

SGT Hawes

Heading towards Bradbury there was no cover - it was an open lane straight to Bradbury. That's what he was going to have to go through, he knew what he was doing, but he had to do it. He knew what he was going into and it was just a mad wall of hell that you were running into, but as soon as he recognized that Bradbury was out there exposed, and the enemy was getting close and we had to get to Bradbury, it was without hesitation "I'm going for him," and he chose guys to help him and you didn't question it. Alright the task is Monti is going for Bradbury, lets do the best we can to support him.

SSG Cunningham

He knew... what he was going against, to help out his Soldier. I know he knew the consequences. Monti was such a smart guy - I know many things were going through his head and I know he could handle all of those million things going through his head at that point. When he went out there, he was committed, and I'm sure he thought about the best way he could do it, but ultimately he knew he had to get his guy out so, he knew what he was up against... but he also knew what was behind him... so he knew that he had a chance to go out there and get him.

SGT Hawes

The final attempt that he made for Bradbury - he made three attempts - we were down to the last 40mm grenade for the M203 and I loaded that and I told Monti that I only had one left and he said he wanted to go for Bradbury again and I told him you have to wait, I told him I fired a grenade at the closest division and for him to run after that it would relay to everyone else that Monti was going to go after that, I put in a fresh magazine and my last 40mm grenade... and on the count, I fired the 40mm grenade at the closest position - which was just beyond Bradbury and as soon as that burst Monti started to run and I started to fire and as he was running - I can still picture it in my mind - him running out straight in front of us in a direct line of sight and I was firing straight past him - it was like a foot off his side - I was just trying to provide the fire as close as I could to Monti, and have it be as effective as I could be to try to keep everybody else - the enemy down while Monti was able to go for Bradbury. While providing that fire I ran out of ammo and I dropped down to do my magazine change, thats when the RPG screamed in and impacted right dead center in the middle of our position, right next to Monti, and that was followed by Monti screaming that he got hit.

SSG Cunningham

He jumped back again. He tried to do it - he said "I gotta get him, I'm going again."

SGT Hawes

I've lost lots and lots of friends in the military... there's nothing glorious about dying or death but there is nothing greater than dying for something you believe in - dying trying to help somebody - that just puts so much meaning into your death and into your life, and that's worth dying for.

SSG Cunningham

As soon as he was back everybody unleashed this intense firepower onto them - we just started engaging and our rounds just started landing - the rounds that he called just started landing by the ridge line and the surrounding areas. I kinda wish that he would have waited a little bit longer. So we got behind, in this little micro train and the enemy was still engaging, they were still shooting. He was like "Tell my family, I'm right with God..." and then...

SGT Hawes

So we reconsolidated and pushed everybody into our most defensible position by the rocks there, and we just pulled 360 security all night, kept mortar fire going all night, yeah it was... a long night. So we kept up indirect fires all night long knowing the suspected enemy positions along the ridge lines, and we were up all night. And then they got word that another medivac was en route in the morning to collect the KIA, then shortly after that we'd be walking off the mountain.

SSG Cunningham

Before the sun came up on that following day, a helicopter came in, dropped some water and chow and we moved as fast - I mean we pretty much, for the amount of firepower we put on the enemy that night we knew that they didn't want to come back out. We were pretty certain that they didn't want to come back out. So we pretty much ran.

SGT Hawes

I know myself, SSG Cunningham, and [inaudible] I know he'll live on through all that - he'll still continue to motivate and inspire people, especially getting the Medal of Honor, he's going to be remembered for all time, he'll never be forgotten.

SSG Cunningham

Well the way I look at it is, somebody dies, they've taught somebody or they've made their mark on somebody, and I had the luxury of working with Monti's guys - the guys that he trained to be like him. So, everything they did was the way that he would do it . So his mannerisms were carried out from them, so we would do missions and it would be like he was still there.