Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Monsoor was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for saving the lives of his fellow SEALs in Ramadi, Iraq, by diving on a grenade only he could have escaped. Before the attack in September 2006, an insurgent lobbed up the hand grenade, which hit Monsoor in the chest and bounced onto the rooftop of a residential building where his team of SEAL snipers was stationed.
After warning his teammates, who had no time to escape, Monsoor smothered the grenade with his body. It detonated, and Monsoor died from his wounds about 30 minutes later.
“He made an instantaneous decision to save our teammates. I immediately understood what happened, and tragically it made sense to me in keeping with the man I know, Mike Monsoor,” said Lt. Cmdr. Seth Stone, Monsoor’s platoon leader in Ramadi.
Bush presented the award to Monsoor’s family in April 2008 during a ceremony at the White House.
