A Medal of Honor Recipient Through The Eyes of His Father and A Legendary Man Known as "Babe"

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You might know the song, I Drive Your Truck by Lee Brice. But do you know the story of the man who inspired the song? His name was Jared Monti, and he was a hero of the highest caliber. Here to tell Jared's story is Paul Monti, his father. 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 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 100% 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 he was a really, really good basketball player. He was pretty much the shortest kid in his class, but he was a heck of a basketball player. 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 going to quit because Monti wasn't picked. Jared got them together and talked to them and said, hey, you don't quit. You guys keep going.

Don't worry about me. That passed, and the next year, middle school, he tried out for the team again. Again, he was the last cut. Then the third year, he tried out again, this time for the varsity. The varsity coach came up to him and said, Jared, why don't you accept the position as team manager? You can warm up with the team before games, but of course you can't play.

He accepted that. After the second game, the coach found a uniform for him because it was kind of embarrassing. He was the only one in street clothes warming up. Then after the third game, the coach started using him as 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 got up and read all the names. Then when he got to the end, 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 25 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 never gave up, that kept on trying. What a character he must have had to do that kind of a thing. He 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? He said, well, Dad, 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, guys and I, we want to have our own Christmas tree. I said, well, okay, go ahead. 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?

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 he brought it to her house and got lights for it and ornaments for it. He bought 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 Monti. Never told anybody. It wasn't being done for personal gain.

It was just, this is something I want to do 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 he died. And you're listening to Paul Monti 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 his 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 story, more of Paul Monti's story and Jared's here on Our American Story. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we're asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of $17.76 is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to OurAmericanStories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming.

That's OurAmericanStories.com. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year. And UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCMedicareHealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot, and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious, and there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done. I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So, if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try all free clear mega packs. All free clear mega packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All free clear mega packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs, which my family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So, the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is, that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that all free clear mega packs, they have your back.

Purchase all free clear mega packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. And we return to our American stories and the story of Sergeant First Class. Jared Monti, when we last left off, Paul Monti, Jared's father, was telling us about the kind of person that his son was.

Let's pick up where we last left off. Well, it was his junior year in high school and he came home and said, Dad, can I talk to you? I said, sure. He said, I want to join the Army, Dad. And I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. I said, you know, you're an A student, you're going to go to college, son. He said, well, Dad, you can't afford to send me to college. And I said, well, you know, Jared, I'll 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? You know, being only 17, I had to sign papers for him, and I did very reluctantly. But, you know, like I had said before, he was a very adventurous kid, and this really appealed to him, this idea of, you know, the adventure of the military and seeing the world, and he loved his country.

So there it was. It was made for him. He was a 13F, 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 was a great soldier. He was a great soldier. He was a great soldier. He was a great soldier.

He was a great soldier. 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 how important it was to saving lives. That's what he loved. He, a number of times, got himself into trouble in the military for that kind of a thing of being a little more adventurous than some officer wanted him to be. I remember an incident in South Korea where he had to take his platoon out on basically a war games maneuver, and they came to a stream which was flowing really quickly. They were supposed to cross this stream, and when Javed saw the stream, he halted his guise and said, 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 assign that to a private or someone. 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 took him out. But that's, again, it was always a matter of him taking the chances and not allowing his boys to be in the line of danger. 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. This was their main route, and the Army had decided that they were going to put a kibosh on this.

They had tried a number of times and were never successful. But they did put together this plan. So Jared with his platoon and Chris Cunningham, who was another sergeant, he was a sniper, and he had his snipers. So there were 16 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 to come into the valley. So in 100-degree heat and all of these guys carrying packs of 70-plus pounds, climbing mostly at night, they climbed Hill 2610.

It took them two days to 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, I answered the phone, said hello, and I heard, hi, Pop, Happy Father's Day.

And I was, like, shocked that he would call me to wish me a Happy Father's Day. And at the end of that conversation, he said, Dad, I got to go. We're leaving on a mission. And that's when they left to climb that mountain.

It was hot. They were out of food. They were out of water. And 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. The helicopter 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, all hell broke loose. Small arms fire, machine guns, RPGs started raining 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 wrist and in the back. The trees surrounding them had no branches left on them. And Private Bradbury and another soldier who had been kind of at the point that 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.

It's like being in the middle of a football field or a baseball field, totally devoid of any cover whatsoever, no rocks, no trees. And the enemy was still fighting at them. 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 Chris Cunningham had said, I'm going out to get Bradbury. Jared answered him back and said, no, he's my boy, I'm going to get him. When we come back, more of the remarkable story of Jared and Paul Monti as told by the father about a fallen son here on Our American Stories.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot, and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious, and there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done. I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So, if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try All-Free Clear Mega Packs. All-Free Clear Mega Packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All-Free Clear Mega Packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs. My family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So, the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that All-Free Clear Mega Packs, they have your back.

Purchase All-Free Clear Mega Packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. And we return to our American stories and the story of Sergeant First Class Jared Monti. When we last left off, Jared was surrounded by a group of 50 insurgents, outmanned and outgunned. And to add to the situation, a fellow soldier, Brian J. Bradbury, was down and exposed to enemy fire.

Jared decided he would expose himself to in order to save his private. Let's return to the story. He ran out to get Bradbury and he was driven back by the heavy enemy fire.

There were at least 50 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 RPG and he was killed.

And 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.

You know, the parents go first and the 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 I saw two men come around the side of the house in uniform. I knew immediately. You know, you answer the door and you get the government response. You know, we need to inform you that, you know, your son was killed in action. And from that moment on, 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. 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 going to, you know, guide you, but I'm going to 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 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. There was an empty bottle. Well, it wasn't quite empty on the floorboards. He liked his char, so he always had a bottle with him to spit into.

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, oh, Lord, 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. I 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 it's him, and he's with me when I drive it. 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 I can, at least once a week to get it out and run it. Some people have said, you know, time heals all wounds. It doesn't.

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 at my house for a barbecue to hold his kids, my grandkids on my lap. 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. 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 Pourn, every Memorial Day and every Veterans Day, now placing 77,000 flags, the fact that we were able to give out $16,000 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 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 Monty.

Here on Our American Stories. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year. And UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit UHCMedicareHealthPlans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot.

And I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. Doing household chores can already be time consuming and tedious, and there's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done. I mean, that can be overwhelming for anyone. So, if you want to get those larger laundry loads done right and get back to your life, try All-Free Clear Mega Packs. All-Free Clear Mega Packs are bigger packs with two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry. All-Free Clear Mega Packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and they're gentle on skin, which is great for any family's sensitive skin needs, which my family, we definitely have sensitive skin. So, the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation is that's caused this big pile of dirty clothes, just know that All-Free Clear Mega Packs, they have your back.

Purchase All-Free Clear Mega Packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types. Here's Mike Gibbons, Director Emeritus and Curator of the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, to tell us just a little bit about what made the Babe a legend. Well, today I'd like to talk to you about one of my favorite topics and that would be Babe Ruth, the guy that I've spent most of my lifetime studying and celebrating. He is arguably the most celebrated athlete ever and certainly the greatest baseball player of all time. Now, people ask me all the time, they say, well, how can you say that? How can you say he's the greatest?

And it's an easy answer. He is the only player who starred both as a pitcher and then as a position player, not to mention being the major's all-time slugger with a.342 batting average. When he retired in 1935, he held 206 major league pitching and batting records. His talent certainly puts him on the Mount Rushmore of sports, but his bigger-than-life personality and the timing of his move from Boston to New York in 1920, the beginning of the Roaring Twenties in America, helped make him into an American cultural icon, right up there with the likes of JFK, Martin Luther King, Marilyn Monroe, Honest Abe Lincoln. So all these years after his death, 72 to be exact, virtually every American and countries in Latin America and Japan where they play baseball, they know the name Babe Ruth. His autograph, the most valuable and recognizable of all.

What contributes to this unprecedented celebrity? Certainly, it's his baseball accomplishments, but also something legendary, the tales, the myths, the legends that helped to mold that legendary aspect into the man. Let's start at the beginning, right here in Baltimore, and how he got to the point of having the most famous nickname in all of sports. Ruth grew up on the west side of Baltimore along the waterfront, came from a modest family, blue-collar workers. They were saloon keepers, mom and dad. They were so busy trying to run the shop that at the age of seven, his father threw up his hands and said, George, we're going to be taking you to St. Mary's Industrial School.

And there he stayed until he was 19 years old. So 12 years he stayed at St. Mary's and was raised by the Zverian brothers, most notably a guy by the name of Brother Matthias. And Brother Matthias instilled in Ruth a little bit of discipline, a lot of religion, and taught him the game of baseball. Ruth went on for the rest of his life thinking that Brother Matthias was really the man that he admired more than any other. And Matthias gave him the gift of teaching him how to pitch, throw, catch, hit, all those things. Ruth excelled at St. Mary's to the extent that when he was 19 years old, he caught the attention of the Baltimore Orioles minor league owner and manager, a guy by the name of Jack Dunn.

Now here is where the nickname comes in. So Doney goes out to St. Mary's and signs Ruth on Valentine's Day, 1914, to a contract that would pay the youngsters $600 a month. Ruth said, that's more money than I've seen in my whole life. So Doney takes Ruth, along with his minor league Orioles, down to spring training in Fayetteville, North Carolina. And there, word spreads about Dunn having to sign guardian papers to get Ruth to be a professional baseball player. The St. Mary's Industrial School would not have released Ruth until he was 21 without someone else signing over for the legal guardian rights to George Jr. So off they go there, and word gets out that Doney is his legal guardian, and the players and reporters covering the team started referring to George Ruth as Jack Dunn's baby.

And this is in mid-February, 1914. Within a month, the Baltimore Sun is referring in print to Ruth as Babe Ruth, and the nickname obviously stuck forever. Now the next thing I wanted to talk to you about occurred on his first stop at Major League Baseball in Boston, where he was a star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. As a matter of fact, he was so good that in the five full seasons he played in Boston, he helped deliver three World Series championships to Boston and the Red Sox, and was just a burgeoning star.

His name was known nationwide by then. Babe Ruth, everybody thought that he was the best left-handed pitcher in the game. But he got sold to the Yankees over the winter of 1919, 1920, and headed off to New York, the Yankees, who had never won a championship. So he goes to New York, plays there 16 years, and in that time delivered seven World Series appearances for the Yankees.

In the meantime, the Red Sox totally dried up, and over the next 86 years failed to win a World Series championship. And that became known as the Curse of the Bambino, something that is still talked about to this day, especially in Boston. A lot of people know that Babe Ruth loved children maybe more than any other athlete ever, at least that we have seen. Babe went out of his way throughout his career, throughout his life, to visit children in orphanages and also hospitals. He always would be trying to bring some joy to children down on their luck or in some kind of trouble. And on one of those hospital occasions, that's where the story of Little Johnny Sylvester comes from.

The year is 1926. The Yankees are playing the Cardinals for the World Series. And word gets out, and this supposedly came from Johnny Sylvester's father, who was a big Yankees fan, that Little Johnny is dying of a rare blood disease, and is there anything that the Yankees could do to lift his spirits? Well, the story goes that Babe Ruth predicted he would hit a home run for Johnny in the next World Series game. So Johnny listens to his radio, and Babe hits a home run and lifts Johnny's spirits. But in fact that day, Ruth hit three home runs, so he must have really lifted Johnny's spirits to the extent that Johnny got better and went on to live a long and productive life as a banker up in Connecticut. In 1986, 60 years after the event, at the museum, we decided to celebrate the Little Johnny story, and I went looking for Johnny Sylvester. I found him, and I asked him, I said, John, do you have anything to prove that Babe Ruth predicted he'd hit a home run for you?

And Johnny says, not only can I prove it, I'll bring it to Baltimore and show you. And Johnny came down to Baltimore, and he presented a baseball to us, and on the baseball, Babe Ruth wrote, I'll knock a homer for you in Wednesday's game. And that ball stayed on display with us for about 20 years.

It was one of our most popular artifacts. So just a great story, but it just shows you just how incredible Babe Ruth really was. Next up is the 1927 Barnstorming Tour. The Yankees had defeated the Pirates four straight games in the 27 World Series, and Ruth and Lou Gehrig went out and toured the country, going to small towns to play baseball games. Well, this was a big deal because back in the 20s, it was rare when Americans could see their favorite athletes or movie stars or things like that.

They pretty much had to go to a movie theater to watch movie-tone reels to get a glimpse at these stars. So Ruth and Gehrig take off on a six-week tour and give their fans an experience that they would remember for the rest of their lives. It was so big when they came to town. The only thing I can liken it to in today's world is when the Beatles hit America in 1964. We had never seen anything like it.

Back then, this was equal to that. Ruth was the biggest thing that ever happened in America. The last thing I want to talk about is the called-shot home run. This is where Babe Ruth supposedly points and then where he's going to hit a home run and on the next pitch he does. It occurred in the 1932 World Series Game 3, October 1, 1932. Ruth is with the Yankees. They're in Chicago playing the Cubs. They're up two games to none, and in the fifth inning of that game, Ruth comes to the plate. The Cubs had been giving him a lot of grief throughout the game, throughout the series actually, and he was pushing back. And with a 2-2 count, he stepped out of the box, supposedly pointed either to center field or at pitcher Charlie Root, but said to Root, I'm going to hit the next pitch down your throat. And Ruth hit the ball to center field on the next swing, and the ball became the longest home run in the history of Wrigley Field. So there you are.

Just some examples. The indelibility of Ruth's celebrity and his mythic status in this country. He is an American icon.

He's an All-American, dream come true. The big fellow, the Bambino, the Babe. In World War II, and I'll leave you with this, the Japanese, when they charged American positions, they shouted, to hell with Babe Ruth, knowing that Babe was precious to them, maybe more precious than anything else, and that's the way Babe Ruth was, bigger than life. And great job by Robbie, and a special thanks to Mike Gibbons, the director emeritus and curator of the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum. The story of the legendary man known as Babe, here on Our American Story.