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This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories Memorial Day Special.
Well show long, we're honoring our nation's fallen heroes. You might know the song I Drive Your Truck by Lee Bryce. It went to the top of the country charts in 2014. But do you know the story of the man who inspired the song? His name was Jared Monty, and he was a hero of the highest caliber.
Jared received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan. In 2006. here to tell Jared's story, is Paul Monty. his father. Uh I think his lot in life was to try to bring joy.
to anybody and everybody that he ever met.
Well, Jared was a very adventurous kid. There wasn't a tree too high for him to climb or a hill. There wasn't a body of water too wide, too deep for him to cross. There were certain characteristics in him that became apparent as he grew. We like to talk about his life in terms of three principles that he lived by.
The first of which was uh to always try your hardest. And this we noticed with him whether it was sports or school, or anything else that he had to do. He was a kid that always gave a hundred per cent to everything he did. His second principle was to never give up, and that became also apparent. One of the stories I like to tell regarding that was uh He was a really, really good basketball player.
He was a sh pretty much the shortest kid in his class. but he was a heck of a basketball player. And when he went to middle school, He tried out for the JV team. and he was the last one cut from the team. His fellow players.
said they were all gonna quit because Monty wasn't picked. And Jared got them together and talked to them and said, Hey, You don't quit. You guys keep going. Don't worry about me.
So That passed and the next year, middle school, he tried out for the team again. and again he was the last cut. And then the third year he tried out again. This time for the velocity. And the varsity coach came up to him and said, Uh Jared, Why don't you accept the position as team manager?
And you can warm up with the team before games, but of course, you can't play. And he accepted that. After the second game, the coach found a uniform for him. Because, you know, it was kind of embarrassing. He was the only one in street clothes warming up.
And then after the third game, The coach started using him. As you know, a mop-up player towards the end of a game. By the end of the season, he was outscoring some of the starters on the team. At his graduation from middle school, When they were giving out the awards for the basketball team, the coach. get up and read all the names and Then when he got to the end, he said with he said this last guy is the epitome of what an athlete should be.
And he's the biggest mistake. that I ever made in my twenty five years of coaching basketball. What an honor to a young man and what courage it took for him to do that. and to be that guy that, you know, never gave up. that kept on trying.
What a character he must have had to do that kind of a thing. You always did the right thing. No matter what it cost him personally. doing the right thing was just part of him. You know, one day when I came home and looked in his room, his bed was missing.
And I called him and I said, Jared, where's your bed? Said, well dad, one of my One of my friends was kicked out of his house. He's sleeping over someone else's house and They don't have a bed for him. He's sleeping on the floor and he can't sleep. I don't mind sleeping on the floor, Dad, so I gave him my bed.
Another incident. He came to me one day and Said, Dad, would you mind if I cut down one of those spruce trees we have in the front of the house? I said, well what do you want that for? He said, Well, um Guys and I, we want to have uh Want to have our own Christmas tree. Yeah.
And it was only after his death when one of his friends Came up to me and said, Mr. Monty, you remember the Christmas tree Jared cut down? And I said, yeah. He said, well, he didn't really cut that down for us. He found a single mom in town that had three kids and didn't have enough money to celebrate Christmas with the kids.
So we brought it to her house and got lights for it and Ornaments for it. He brought presents for all the kids and for the woman. and then he stayed and made Christmas dinner for them all. and never told a soul. It's these kinds of things that he did.
And with great humility, I remember a day when he asked me to drive him to a Weightlifting competition. I did. I drove him there and I said, well, when do you want me to pick you up? Or do you want me to come in? He says, no, no, no, no, no.
I've got to ride home with somebody else.
Now after his death, I went up to clean his room and Underneath his bed was a box full of trophies. He had soccer trophies and baseball trophies and basketball trophies. But what stood out was this three foot trophy that was under the bed of a weightlifter. And I read the plaque. And it said New England Weightlifting Championships first place Under 17 division.
Jared Monty. Never told anybody. It wasn't being done for personal gain. It was just. This is something I want to do.
Uh You know. For myself. And that's what he did. It just carried on throughout his life, and the culmination of all of that was. on that day that um that he died.
Um And you're listening to Paul Monty tell the story of his fallen son. And my goodness, if you're a son and your dad speaks these words over you like this, you are one lucky man. And if you're a dad who gets to speak these words about a son, you're one lucky father. When we come back, More of this remarkable story, this beautiful story, Father and Son Bond. A fallen soldier's story, honoring all those who fell.
in all of our wars. Here on Memorial Day. More of Paul Monte's story and Jared's here. on our American stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories.
Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country. Stories from our big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do this show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to ouramericanstories.com and click the donate button.
Give a little, give a lot. Go to ouramericanstories.com and give. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Amazon Pharmacy presents painful thoughts.
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Is your Jesus shaped more by culture than scripture? In our instant world, we've made Jesus a life coach, a therapist, a political ally. The Missing Messiah, a new book by Kyle Eidelman and Mark Moore, helps us understand how Western culture has gradually reshaped Jesus into our image and recognize the difference between a personalized savior and revolutionary king. If you believe there's a more dangerous, more majestic Messiah than the one you've inherited, visit missingmessiah.com to learn more today. Um And we return to our American Stories Memorial Day special and the story of Sergeant First Class Jared Monty, when we last left off Paul Monty, Jared's father.
was telling us about the kind of person that his son was. Let's pick up where we last left off. Uh Well, it was his junior year in high school, and he came home and. Dad, can I talk to you? I said sure.
He said, I want to join the army, Dad. Yeah. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I said, you know, you ever. You're an A student, you're going to go to college, son.
I said, well, Dad, you can't afford to send me to college. And I said, well, You know, Jared, I I'd just get another job. He said, Dad, you're already working two and three jobs. Let me do this. I'll go in the Army and they'll pay for my college.
What was I to say? Uh You know, being only 17, I had to sign papers for him. I did very reluctantly. But like I had said before, he was a very adventurous kid, and this really appealed to him. this idea of, you know, the ad the adventure of the military and seeing the world and and he loved his country.
So there it was, it was made for him. Wow. He was a thirteen F forward observer. what we used to call the Suicide Squad because they were always operating behind enemy lines. That bothered me too.
I mean, like I said, we called it the suicide squad. But danger, dangerous things never bothered him. You know, he loved the roller coaster. He loved riding a motorcycle. That kind of thing didn't bother him.
And especially in the military where he knew important it was. to saving lives. That's what he loved. He number of times got himself into trouble in the military for that kind of a thing. of uh being a little more adventurous than some officer wanted him to be.
I remember an incident in uh South Korea where He had to take his platoon out on basically a a war games maneuver. and they came to a a stream which was flowing v really quickly. they were supposed to cross this stream. And when Javid saw the stream, he uh He halted his guys and said, uh You know what? That doesn't look safe at all.
Let me go out and check it and make sure it's safe for all of us.
Now, being a sergeant at that time. Normally You would. a sign that to you know a private or someone Yeah. but Jared always led from the front. It was always.
My boys, Dad. My boys. He looked upon them as young people that he had to protect. It was his job to make sure his guys were safe.
So he forded the stream but he ended up getting washed downstream. They all thought he was dead. But luckily enough there was a Floating branch. in the water that he was able to cling to until they found him. and uh and took him out.
But that's again It's it It was always a matter of him taking the chances and not allowing His boys. to be in the line of danger. That's that's just who he was. It's just What he did. And Yeah, he ended up being twice deployed to Afghanistan.
Probably the most dangerous area in all of Afghanistan. was this area in the Kuna Valley. This was the place where The Taliban would come in from Pakistan. Um this was their main route. And the Army had decided that they were going to.
put a kibosh on this. They had tried number of times and were never successful. But they did put together this plan. Yeah. So Jared uh with his platoon.
and Chris Cunningham, who was another sergeant, He was a sniper and he had his snipers.
So there were sixteen of them all together. Eight of them were forward observers and eight snipers. And they were tasked to climb this mountain. The mountain was 8,500 feet high. to set up an observation post at the top of the mountain.
to view the crossing area down below in the valley.
so that they could call in fire. when the main force a day later was two. come into the valley.
So, um, in a hundred-degree heat, and all of these guys carrying. you know, packs of seventy plus pounds, climbing mostly at night. They climbed Hill 2610. It took them... Two days.
climb that.
Now as an aside to that the night before they left to make this climb. I got a call very early in the morning, got me out of bed. Get out of bed. He answered the the phone, said hello and I heard Hi Pop, Happy Father's Day. Mm-hmm.
And uh I was like shocked. Um that he would call me to wish me a happy Father's Day. And um At the end of that conversation, He said, Dad, I gotta go. We're leaving on a mission. Yeah.
And that's when they they left to climb that. That mountain. It was hot. Uh they were Ada. food, they were out of water.
And um The army had made provisions to have an airdrop for them. At the same time they were going into the valley.
so that the helicopter dropping their provisions wouldn't be noticed.
However, Because one helicopter was down. needed repairs, the Army decided to postpone the attack into the valley. For two days. which left the guys at the top without food and water. And the Army then decided to send in their supply helicopter anyway.
How Lecopter came in. It missed the drop point. and dropped the stuff way too near them. Marking their position. As the sun was setting on that day.
They heard noises in the woods that surrounded this Plateau. about half the size of a football field. And at that point Well hell broke loose. Small arms fire machine guns. RPGs.
started reigning in on their position.
so badly that these guys couldn't pop their head up. One of them got His rifle shot out of his hands. Another one was shot in the in the wrist and in the back. Um the trees surrounding them had no branches left on them. And Private Bradbury and another soldier.
who had been kind of at the point. They were in danger of being overrun. And so they decided to run back to the opposite end. where there were some rocks they could hide behind. The one soldier made it, but Bradbury was hit, and he was down.
You know, it's like being in the middle of a of a football field or Baseball field. totally devoid of any cover whatsoever. No rocks, no trees. And the enemy was still fighting at him. Jared called in for artillery mortars Air support, danger close.
which I think people understand that means the bombs are going to be dropping so close to you that if you're not down, the chances are you're going to be killed as well as the enemy. And after calling in the coordinates. That's when Jared handed off the radio to someone else and that's when he tightened his chin strap and uh Chris Cunningham had said, I'm I'm going out to get Bradbury in. Jared answered him back and said, No, he's my boy. I'm gonna get him.
When we come back. More of the remarkable story. of Jared and Paul Monty. Here. on our American stories.
Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage.
Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Amazon Health AI presents painful thoughts. I am.
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Visit chase.com/slash reserve business to learn more. Cards issued by J.P. Morgan Chase Bank and a member of DIC subject to credit approval. Terms apply. Is your Jesus shaped more by culture than scripture?
In our instant world, we've made Jesus a life coach, a therapist, a political ally. The Missing Messiah, a new book by Kyle Eidelman and Mark Moore, helps us understand how Western culture has gradually reshaped Jesus into our image and recognize the difference between a personalized savior and revolutionary king. If you believe there's a more dangerous, more majestic Messiah than the one you've inherited, visit missingmessiah.com to learn more today. Um And we return to our American Stories Memorial Day special. and the story of Sergeant First Class Jared Monty.
When we last left off, Jared and the group of men he had helped to lead into one of the most dangerous areas of Afghanistan, Was surrounded by a group of fifty insurgents, outmanned and outgunned. And to add to the situation, Brian J. Bradbury was down and exposed to enemy fire. Jarrod decided he would expose himself too, in order to save his private. Let's return to the story.
ran out to get Bradbury and he was driven back. by the heavy enemy fire. There were at least fifty Taliban firing at them. And then he tried a second time, and was driven back a second time. And you know, not being able to give up and wanting to do the right thing.
Out he went the third time. That's when he was hit by the R P G and he was killed. And that's That's what led up to him receiving the Medal of Honor. I haven't gotten through it.
Next month will be 15 years. And I'm still stuck in it. No one should lose a child. It's not supposed to happen that way. It's you know the parents go first and and their children grieve for them.
I'll never forget that night, 9.45 p.m. I'm sitting watching America's Got Talent. And my doorbell rang. And um Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and Two men come around. the side of the house in uniform and I know.
immediately. You know, you answer the door and You get the Government response. Um I don't wait. Um We need to inform you that, you know, your son was was killed in action. And from that moment on, you just...
You're off.
Somewhere. I remember sitting down with them at the dining room table. and having a stack of papers shoved in front of me. and asked to sign this, sign this, sign this, and you just... go through the motions.
You don't want to believe what they're saying. You want to. think that someone made a mistake. Um I I was so messed up. I mean His guys They couldn't believe what happened.
Monty was so revered. to them that nothing could ever happen to him. To this day. they have the same feeling. They all I don't think any of them have ever gotten over.
What happened? He wasn't just you know, their sergeant. He was their friend. Yeah I'm your boss and I'm gonna, you know, guide you. But I'm gonna be your friend.
Back in the States. every weekend. He would either be going to someone's house to help them put in a floor. Or he was having a barbecue for them. Or if There was a celebration for one of their children, he would be there.
He took care of them. as if they were, and indeed they were, his brothers. That's Where my pride comes in. that he was such a good human being. Yeah.
that I wonder if I'm even worthy. to be called his father. It's really very, very difficult to understand that a person like this is related to you. Never mind being your own son. I wasn't even expecting the truck.
When they delivered all his stuff from his apartment in New York. The last thing that came off was his truck and I was like, wow. Um There was a Empty bottle, well it wasn't quite empty on the floorboards. He liked his chaw.
So he always had a bottle with him to spit into some That was that was in there. He had toothpaste in there, he had mouthwash, he had a toothbrush, he had Yeah, he had a little container of coins. He had uh Oh god. Just you know, a guy's truck. I mean, it's pretty much the same even now, 15 years later, as it was when he left.
Um Never vacuumed it. It sure needs it, but I just don't want to remove his DNA. I don't want that sucked up by a vacuum cleaner.
So yeah, it's a little messy. But um It's it's him and he's with me when I drive it, so. I don't drive it as much as I used to. It was my everyday vehicle for a while, and then I realized that it had to be preserved, so. I got another vehicle, but I still make sure I drive.
his truck whenever. whenever I can, at least once a week, to get it out and running. And Some People have said, you know, time heals all wounds. It doesn't. It it absolutely doesn't.
I'm 15 years in and It's almost like it happened yesterday. This is the way it is. The way my life is now You know, there's a door in front of me. with my son's name on it. And I'm expecting to be able to open that door.
and go and visit him. And Go to sports games with him and go fishing with him and Just have him over. my house for a barbecue. Um To hold his kids, my grandkids, on my lap Um That's what I expect when I open that door. But when I actually reach out and open that door It's just totally dark inside.
There will be no barbecues in the backyard. There will be no. Red Sox games. There will be no fishing trips. Um there will be no grandkids.
I know the Lord works in very mysterious ways, and I know that. No matter who you are. When a loved one Dies. You always have that question, why God? But I was actually able to answer that question.
The Whole thing that came about from my son's death. the fact that we now have a charity that places flags on every grave. At the National Cemetery in Porn, every Memorial Day and every Veterans' Day.
now placing seventy seven thousand flags. The fact that we were able to give out sixteen thousand dollars in scholarship money this year. the effect that Jared's had on So many people, especially young people, throughout the entire country, indeed in some cases the world. It seems to me that uh God looked down and he said, You know, Jared, you're doing a fabulous job on that planet, but. If you come up here with me, you'll be able to do even more.
And that's what he's been doing since he passed. Even more. And a spectacular job by Monty, as always. And my goodness, what a piece of storytelling. from Paul Monty.
I haven't gotten through it.
No one should lose a child. The parent goes first. He wasn't just their sergeant, he said. He was their friend. He was such a good human being.
The story of Jared Monty. The story of Paul Monkey. Here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years.
And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q.
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