The life of Sgt. Jared Monti

Media Nation recently participated in a fundraising drive for a scholarship named after U.S. Army Sgt. Jared Monti of Raynham, who was awarded the Medal of Honor after giving his life to save a fellow soldier in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, the Boston Globe published a terrific front-page article on Monti’s life by Bryan Bender. What makes it especially powerful is that Bender presents Monti as a real human being rather than as an improbable saint. Bender writes:

Everything went wrong for Monti and his patrol. The unit was left on that narrow ridge longer than intended, exposing it to a much larger enemy. And while Monti’s display of “extreme personal courage and extraordinary self-sacrifice,” as the Army described it, helped turn the tide, disaster struck again when the soldier Monti tried to save was killed in a freak accident while being airlifted out. Including Monti, four soldiers died.

“True valor is not defined so much by results,” an Army general wrote in recommending Monti for the medal, “as it is by the depth of conviction that inspires its expression. On rare occasions, the actions of men are so extraordinary that the nobility rests, not in their outcome, but in the courage of their undertaking.”

Bender’s piece is both inspiring and heartbreaking, and I urge you to take the time to read it. And yes, you can still give to the SFC Jared C. Monti Memorial Scholarship Fund.