Michael Monsoor

My cousin Lisa sent me an e-mail tonight which had been forwarded so many times that the text was broken up by a multitude of gibberish characters and was indented to the far right of my screen.

She had inserted a short yet simple challenge above the message which read "Don, true or not?"

Mike Monsoor, Navy EOD Technician, was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously for jumping on a grenade in Iraq, giving his life to save his fellow Seals.

During Mike Monsoor's funeral in San Diego, as his coffin was being moved from the hearse to the grave site at Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery, SEALs were lined up on both sides of the pallbearers route forming a column of twos, with the coffin moving up the center. As Mike's coffin passed, each SEAL, having removed his gold Trident from his uniform, slapped it down embedding the Trident in the wooden coffin.

The slaps were audible from across the cemetery. By the time the coffin arrived grave side, it looked as though it had a gold inlay from all the Tridents pinned to it.

When I first read the umpteen-million-forwarded account of why Michael Monsoor had supposedly won the Medal of Honor, I am truly and deeply ashamed to admit that my gut reaction was to shout "fake." There's no way people really do stuff like this.

I was wrong. Very wrong.

U.S. Navy SEAL Petty Officer Second Class Michael A. Monsoor is a true hero. My own words would not be able to better describe the reason for his award than the Summary of Action report from the U.S. Navy:

The grenade hit him in the chest and bounced onto the deck. He immediately leapt to his feet and yelled "grenade" to alert his teammates of impending danger, but they could not evacuate the sniper hide-sight in time to escape harm. Without hesitation and showing no regard for his own life, he threw himself onto the grenade, smothering it to protect his teammates who were lying in close proximity. The grenade detonated as he came down on top of it, mortally wounding him .... Of the three SEALs on that rooftop corner, he had the only avenue of escape away from the blast, and if he had so chosen, he could have easily escaped. Instead, Monsoor chose to protect his comrades by the sacrifice of his own life.

I'm at a loss for words here.

Part of me thought that guys like Mike only existed in the movies, and yet I've heard stories of heroic actions again and again from relatives, acquaintances, and while serving at funerals for fallen veterans during PGR missions.

Selfless heroism makes me so very proud, and yet oddly ashamed. Guys like Mike are out there literally giving their lives in service to our country, and here I am comfortably sitting at my computer and trying to describe why I appreciate and salute them.

Navy SEALs slapped their Tridents onto Mike's coffin. Their frickin' Tridents. That alone makes this post seems so weak and meaningless.

Do me a favor, readers of this blog. Regardless of your personal politics or for whichever armed conflict you supported or opposed from WWI through today, when you next see a serviceman/woman wearing a uniform, or if you know somebody that has served, please take two seconds out of your day and just say "thank you."