I am tired of reading these stories. I am tired of seeing these heroes loose their lives for a pointless and unnecessary war. I have known no one personally who has had the misfortune to be sent over there, and I pray I never will.
I thank every single one of our members of the Armed Forces who have to do this. I pray you all can come home and soon.
Master at Arms Second Class Michael Anthony Monsoor (April 5, 1981 – September 29, 2006) was a U.S. Navy SEAL killed during the Iraq War and posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
On September 29, 2006, the platoon engaged four insurgents in a firefight, killing one and injuring another. Anticipating further attacks, Monsoor, three SEAL snipers and three Iraqi soldiers took up a rooftop position. Civilians aiding the insurgents blocked off the streets, and a nearby mosque broadcast a message for people to fight against the Americans and the Iraqi soldiers. Monsoor was protecting his SEAL comrades, two of whom were 15 feet away. His position made him the only SEAL on the rooftop with quick access to an escape route.
A grenade was thrown onto the rooftop by an insurgent in the street below. The grenade hit Monsoor in the chest and fell onto the floor. Immediately, Monsoor fell onto and covered the grenade with his body, saving the lives of his three comrades. Monsoor was critically wounded and, although evacuated immediately, died 30 minutes later. Two SEALs next to him were injured by the blast but lived.
He was buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego.
During Monsoor's funeral, as his coffin was being moved from the hearse to the grave site, Navy SEALs were lined up on both sides of the pallbearers route forming a column of two's, with the coffin moving up the center. As Monsoor's coffin passed, each SEAL, having removed his gold Trident from his own uniform, slapped it down deeply embedding the Trident in Monsoor's wooden coffin.
The slaps were audible from across the cemetery. By the time the coffin arrived at grave side, it looked as though it had a gold inlay from all the SEAL tridents pinned to it.
The symbolic display moved many, including President George W. Bush, who during his speech in April's Medal of Honor ceremony spoke about the incident.
"The procession went on nearly half an hour," Bush said. "And when it was all over, the simple wooden coffin had become a gold-plated memorial to a hero who will never be forgotten.”
You remember that Mr. Bush. It is because of you, and your pointless instance to go to war with a country that you didn't need to that this man died. May he be remembered long after you have crumbled to no more than a pathetic footnote in the history books.
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