Jared Christopher Monti

Three Attempts Under Fire: The Soldier Who Would Not Leave a Comrade Behind

The wounded soldier lay in open ground as enemy fire closed around a patrol in Afghanistan’s mountains. Staff Sergeant Jared Christopher Monti tried to reach him once, then again. On his third attempt, Monti was mortally wounded. His decision to keep going became the defining act in a life of service and the reason he received the Medal of Honor.

Born on 20 September 1975 in Abington, Massachusetts, and raised in Raynham, Monti entered the Army National Guard’s delayed-entry program while still in high school. After graduation, he moved to active duty and trained as a fire support specialist. His work joined battlefield observation with the direction of artillery fire. Assignments took him to Korea, and deployments took him to Kosovo in 1999 and Afghanistan in 2003–04. He returned to Afghanistan in February 2006 with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.

On 21 June 2006, Monti was serving with Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment, in Nuristan Province. A 16-man patrol gathering intelligence and directing fire came under attack from as many as 50 enemy fighters. Monti helped establish a defensive position behind rocks, called in and adjusted indirect fire as the enemy approached, and fought off an attempted flank with his rifle and a grenade.

Then he saw a fellow soldier wounded between the patrol and the advancing fighters. The official Medal of Honor citation records two attempts to leave cover and reach him under relentless fire. Monti made a third attempt because he would not abandon his comrade. He was killed in that effort, while his actions helped inspire the patrol to repel the larger force.

The Army’s record also confirms a Bronze Star Medal, a Purple Heart, five Army Commendation Medals, four Army Achievement Medals and three Army Good Conduct Medal awards. His service brought campaign and service recognition for Kosovo, Afghanistan and other qualifying duty, alongside a NATO Medal. The Combat Action Badge and parachutist and air assault badges belong to his wider service record, while his unit later received a Meritorious Unit Commendation covering its 2006 Afghanistan deployment.

Monti was promoted posthumously to sergeant first class. On 17 September 2009, President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor to his parents, Paul and Janet Monti. The citation preserves the facts of the firefight; his repeated return to the open ground explains the courage behind them.