Medal of Honor

Last week I gave you a preview that I was going to exciting places such as Raynham, MA and Fort Drum, NY but I really couldn't say why. I was traveling to do a profile on the recipient of the Medal of Honor that was bestowed this week by POTUS. While I normally travel with POTUS, this trip was unique in the fact that it had little to nothing to do with him. Instead of the WH making all the arrangments, I planned it all. And even though I don't particularly like traveling commercially, everything went soooo well!!

Let me back up and say that I absolutely loved being a part of this story. SFC Jared Monti was killed in Afghanistan in 2006 when he tried to save one of his soldier's lives. It's truly an amazing story that I hope you will read. In my usual day to day work, I don't get too emotionally involved in a story. It's not that easy to get drawn in by economic numbers or a missile crisis or heatlhcare bills. Even to be honest, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But you put a face and a name to something and everything changes. We went to Ft. Drum to interview one of his commanding sargeant. While we were there, I found a couple of guys who were in the firefight with SFC Monti the night he died. To hear first hand accounts of what these guys went through and to see how difficult it was for them to talk about it three years later was something I'll never forget. Oh yeah, and these guys are 22 years old now so they were experiencing this when they were 18 or 19. It was truly inspiring.

The next day, we spent the day with SFC Monti's father in Raynham, MA, about 45 minutes outside of Boston. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure how successful the interview was going to be but once we got going, Mr. Monti told some of the most inspiring stories about his son. I was in tears several times during the interview because I could see just his raw emotion from losing his son. I don't want to ever experience what he's gone through but I was honored to get to know his family in a real tangible way. I was soooo honored to be a part of this story.

Like I said, I very rarely get emotionally involved in my work but this was an exception that was well worth it. I hope you'll get to watch my piece here. I'm not posting it to brag. I really want you to see the exceptional life of this honored fallen soldier. Here's the other part I also worked on. I hope you enjoy it.