Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[♪trumpet playing♪]
In September I was at the White House for the award of the Medal of Honor
to Sergeant 1st Class Jared Monti's family.
He was killed in action in Afghanistan in June of 2006.
And at that ceremony the president talked about the contribution
of our noncommissioned officers in that fight
and of Sergeant Monti's contribution.
We honor all the soldiers he loved and who loved him back,
among them noncommissioned officers who remind us why the Army has designated this the Year of the NCO
in honor of all those sergeants who are the backbone of America's Army.
[♪ominous music playing♪]
My son Jared did two tours in Afghanistan.
He liked being where the action was.
I wasn't surprised when he joined the Army because that was his calling.
He wanted to do what he could for his country,
and that was what he did.
That's Jared.
His men had a good NCO, a good leader, to watch over them.
[♪♪]
An NCO is a professional, first and foremost.
We're almost the axle that the wheel of the Army pivots on.
From the moment that we wake up in the morning until I lay my head down on my pillow at night,
my whole world revolves around our soldiers.
We focus a great deal on their entire well-being.
I'm very confident in my NCOs to take me back to Baghdad, Afghanistan,
anywhere that there's a combat situation.
Because they've been raised in this wartime Army
and this is how they've been brought up in the Army,
the NCOs today are qualified to win wars,
no doubt in my mind.
[♪inspiring music playing♪]
There was a team which Jared was the head of.
They were doing advance reconnaissance for a major push into a valley
where they knew there were a lot of Taliban.
There were 16 of them.
A very large force of Taliban insurgents, estimated at somewhere over 60,
attacked from two different sides, so it was a 4 to 1 ratio.
[gunfire] [soldiers shouting]
Jared got everybody down in positions, but there was someone missing.
Staff Sergeant Monti, there on the battlefield,
it was his sense of responsibility that drove him to risk his life.
He was bound and determined to get to that soldier and get that soldier back to safety.
[♪♪]
We're issued the same gore tex and boots that everybody can buy at REI,
but you know what you can't issue somebody is this mindset that says,
"I need to go out and help."
All the service that citizen soldiers have and the NCO Corps has
is right to the core, right to the core of who we are.
[♪♪]
If you're a good NCO, what you find is your soldiers don't forget your name.
They'll recall the way that you took care of them,
the way that you mentored them, the way that you truly loved them and had affection.
[soldier] There you go. You can do it.
I was very fortunate to have a lot of really good NCOs.
And they taught me phenomenal things about how to deal with people
and how to take care of soldiers.
[soldiers chanting cadence]
The most important thing I do is take care of soldiers.
I love them to death. I love all my soldiers.
[soldiers shouting cadence]
[♪inspiring music playing♪]
The Noncommissioned Officer Corps truly is something that is uniquely American,
I'd like to think uniquely United States Army,
that we have young men and women who come into the Army,
grow up in our ranks,
assume responsibilities at really an early age today,
much earlier than they did in the past.
And they are what makes our Army different from all others.
[♪♪]
I think it's inspirational.
When you look at our soldiers right now, deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan,
it's all about experience.
Combat experience is pretty much a forge:
you're in the fire, you're in the fight.
It brings out the best in a lot of our NCOs,
and it develops leadership skills and technical skills as well.
[♪♪]
We're training soldiers to go into combat,
and then we lead them into combat.
We have to answer to ourselves, to the soldiers' families,
their parents, their loved ones,
so it's something that you have to end up putting 110% of yourself into.
We've never had an Army with as many combat veterans,
as many seasoned combat veterans.
I don't think we've ever had an Army that is so good at what it has to do today.
[♪♪]
In the case of Sergeant 1st Class Monti,
there was a fellow soldier down in the open,
and he tried the first time but literally, withering fire drove him back under cover.
He tried a second time to get out to the soldier.
That was his soldier; he felt responsible for him and he was going to get him home
as best he could. [gunfire]
He then decided to try a third time,
so he got everybody to give him cover fire.
He pulled a grenade, pulled the pin, threw it,
and as he threw it, he rushed out, hoping that the grenade would also give him some cover.
[soldiers shouting]
The grenade never exploded, and he took about two steps before he was hit with an RPG.
When Jared went down, they tell me that he did two things:
He said the "Our Father," and made peace with his Lord.
And then he said, "Tell my family I love them."
And he passed.
[♪♪]
What I'll tell my kids about Jared is how to be unselfish,
that complete selflessness where you'll lose your life for someone.
[♪♪]
Jared did it just because of the soldier he was
and the professional and the person he was.
He did what everybody dreams of doing when they join the service,
and he sacrificed so much.
He would be the one sitting out on guard duty or whatever on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day
so that somebody else would be at home with their family.
He didn't want to be a hero,
and at this point, he'd be embarrassed.
"I didn't do anything, Dad. I just did my job."
That's what he would say.
He was an NCO. He's been given the Congressional Medal of Honor.
It was distinguished gallantry above and beyond the call of duty
to risk his life to get out there to save that fellow soldier.
[♪♪]
His aunt said it the best: He wasn't the biggest guy,
but when you looked at him and you knew him, he was a giant.
I know he would do it again.
If he could come back and if he were given a choice,
he would do it exactly the same; he would change nothing.
[♪♪]
I keep coming back because this is what I swore to do.
I have that sense of duty and that sense of honor,
and I have that sense of country.
It just means so much to me to wear this rank.
I think about it every time I go out in public,
and I feel proud to be a part of this, to be a part of the NCO Corps,
to be in the United States Army.
Jared would have been very, very proud that this was the Year of the NCO.
He would say, "Well, it's about damn time that they recognize those guys"
"that get down and dirty, that do all the work, that make the Army go,"
"that keep us free."
I think they're all heroes,
and he would think so, too.
That medal is for all of them. That's how I feel, too--for all of them.
[♪triumphant music playing♪]
[♪♪]