SEAL falls on grenade to save comrades

[ProfJohn]

With all the bad stories of what is going on with our troops in Iraq it is nice to see a good one once in a while, even though it is sad.

A Navy SEAL sacrificed his life to save his comrades by throwing himself on top of a grenade Iraqi insurgents tossed into their sniper hideout, fellow members of the elite force said.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor had been near the only door to the rooftop structure Sept. 29 when the grenade hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor, said four SEALs who spoke to The Associated Press this week on condition of anonymity because their work requires their identities to remain secret.

"He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it," said a 28-year-old lieutenant who sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs that day. "He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs' lives, and we owe him."

Read the rest of story here Link

EDIT: Shameless plug, my brother works with the Seal recovery teams at Little Creek Va on boat maintnence.

Saturday Edit: took out line about winning because of people like this, because I am disgusted that we have turned a story about a brave man into a pissing thread over the war and whether what he did was a smart thing to do.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
With all the bad stories of what is going on with our troops in Iraq it is nice to see a good one once in a while, even though it is sad.

A Navy SEAL sacrificed his life to save his comrades by throwing himself on top of a grenade Iraqi insurgents tossed into their sniper hideout, fellow members of the elite force said.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor had been near the only door to the rooftop structure Sept. 29 when the grenade hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor, said four SEALs who spoke to The Associated Press this week on condition of anonymity because their work requires their identities to remain secret.

"He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it," said a 28-year-old lieutenant who sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs that day. "He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs' lives, and we owe him."

Read the rest of story here Link

It is because of guys like this that I do not doubt that we can win the war if we are willing to spend the time and effort into it.

EDIT: Shameless plug, my brother works with the Seal recovery teams at Little Creek Va on boat maintnence.

:thumbsup:

 

[Aisengard]

I would not be brave enough to do that. It takes serious cojones, and is extremely admirable. I'm just sad such a man is dead.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
With all the bad stories of what is going on with our troops in Iraq it is nice to see a good one once in a while, even though it is sad.

A Navy SEAL sacrificed his life to save his comrades by throwing himself on top of a grenade Iraqi insurgents tossed into their sniper hideout, fellow members of the elite force said.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor had been near the only door to the rooftop structure Sept. 29 when the grenade hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor, said four SEALs who spoke to The Associated Press this week on condition of anonymity because their work requires their identities to remain secret.

"He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it," said a 28-year-old lieutenant who sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs that day. "He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs' lives, and we owe him."

Read the rest of story here Link

It is because of guys like this that I do not doubt that we can win the war if we are willing to put the time and effort into it.

.

Yeah if we only had battalions of martyrs.

 

[jpeyton]

It is because of guys like this that I do not doubt that we can win the war if we are willing to put the time and effort into it.

Unfortunately, we are not willing to put in the time or effort needed to win the war in Iraq.

Could you also help me draw the connection between this guy jumping on a grenade and any forward progress made in the war? The way I see it, any time an Iraqi insurgent kills one of our most elite soldiers, it's a step backward.

 

[catnap1972]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
With all the bad stories of what is going on with our troops in Iraq it is nice to see a good one once in a while, even though it is sad.

A Navy SEAL sacrificed his life to save his comrades by throwing himself on top of a grenade Iraqi insurgents tossed into their sniper hideout, fellow members of the elite force said.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor had been near the only door to the rooftop structure Sept. 29 when the grenade hit him in the chest and bounced to the floor, said four SEALs who spoke to The Associated Press this week on condition of anonymity because their work requires their identities to remain secret.

"He never took his eye off the grenade, his only movement was down toward it," said a 28-year-old lieutenant who sustained shrapnel wounds to both legs that day. "He undoubtedly saved mine and the other SEALs' lives, and we owe him."

Read the rest of story here Link

It is because of guys like this that I do not doubt that we can win the war if we are willing to put the time and effort into it.

.

Yeah if we only had battalions of martyrs.

Plenty of them here (P&N)--they won't get up out of the La-Z-Boy though.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Sad to hear we lost another of ours. It was an heroic act for sure.

But as far as the war in general, well......remember that you don't win wars by dying for your country, you win by making the other guys die for theirs.

 

[umbrella39]

Sad story indeed. But as for the OP thinking that 10.000.000 guys like this will "win" this war for us, you are seriously delusional. Unless the enemy starts wearing bright orange dayglo jumpsuits of couse...

You can't win a war when the enemy looks exactly like the person you are trying to protect. And that guy you were protecting and standing next to yesterday, today now has a bomb stapped on him.. WTF can you do? PJ, I would take your chearleading much more seriously if you were making your posts from a .mil email address from over in Iraq. I love how you guys always say "WE" can win this war. Who is theis "we" you speak of. Certainly not "YOU". So when do "YOU" start putting in the "time and effort" that you so flippantly tossed out there in your OP? I try and take you people seriously but I see nothing American or brave about people that use their keyboards to defend this country when our men and women are dying over there every day for you right to do so.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Reminds me very little of the time some dude threw himself on the village prostitute when he realized thst she was about to blow.
Saved all of his buddies skins, and he had to take penicillin for 6 weeks - he went down in service to his country.

 

[DealMonkey]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
It is because of guys like this that I do not doubt that we can win the war if we are willing to put the time and effort into it.

Excuse me? I think we've been putting the effort and the time in. 3-1/2 years now into the occupation, er "war," and rapidly approaching 3,000 US combat deaths and 20,000+ casualties.

Face it, there is no "win" in Iraq, just lesser or greater degrees of SNAFU.

 

[CaptnKirk]

This 'Self-Martyrdom' has happened in all recent wars that I can think of. WWII, Korea, Veitnam, Iraq . . .
it makes a good 'Sacrificial Hero War Story - little more.
I always wonder why they choose to be dead heros and jump on the gernade to save thier buddies
and why not take that effort and toss the damn thing away so that they can save their buddies,
and themselves . . and live to fight another day.

What kind of training did they get that obliges them to kill themselves by falling on a bomb?
There is some 'fuze-time' in any of these explosives - granted there is a chance that it will go off on their face,
but to lay on top of something for a quarter of a second to maybe 3 or 4 full seconds waiting for it to detonate
is just beyond me.

When I was in there were no classes dedicated to jumping onto a gernade to save others -
they said if you see it when it comes in you get the hell out or throw it back at them.
Why in the hell do you assist the enemy's effort to kill you when those few precious seconds
can be better used to get rid of the threatening device?

Maybe just the visual image of having seen it in a John Wayne of an Audy Murphy movie is what drives them
to make the wrong decision when there may be a better way to cope with a desparate situation - critical thought fails to kick in
and that indivitual unerringly makes the worst, most dangerous, and definately the wrong last choice.

 

[imported_Aelius]

As much as I idolize the spec ops community and as much as I know about how they operate and their training it doesn't blind me. I do know something about history.

All of this has played out before in Vietnam, Afghanistan and many other nations going back hundreds of years. As far back as the 1400 and 1500s in Hungary where fanatical Muslims, even after holding over half the country, were unable to supress a popular rebellion in such a tiny nation. Despite their vast army and resources they were unable to expand further and were eventually ousted. Thus preventing the Western world from being butchered or converted. That little insurection lasted almost 3 centuries. Something to boast about for sure, but far more importantly it's something to learn from.

A population willing to die for their country simply cannot be beaten. You can level their cities, commit acts of savagery against them, rape, murder, and torture them but many refuse to break. Those whom do not learn from history will repeat it.

I'm very saddened this SEAL died. These spec ops guys are the bravest of the brave. Officially he died for his country, but I think most prefer to see as dying for their brothers in arms. At least I'd like to think they do since ultimately dying for a cause is dangerous when that cause turns out to be something it was not.

 

[Atheus]

The most impressive thing is it seems as if he didn't even think about it - a normal person would at least take half a second to look for another option, and maybe then it would be too late. This guy just did it without so much as a 'see you on the other side'.

A thought - would it be possible to have somthing like a 'bomb blanket' which can be thrown over a grenade or a IED and catch the shrapnel?

 

[palehorse]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
This 'Self-Martyrdom' has happened in all recent wars that I can think of. WWII, Korea, Veitnam, Iraq . . .
it makes a good 'Sacrificial Hero War Story - little more.
I always wonder why they choose to be dead heros and jump on the gernade to save thier buddies
and why not take that effort and toss the damn thing away so that they can save their buddies,
and themselves . . and live to fight another day.

What kind of training did they get that obliges them to kill themselves by falling on a bomb?
There is some 'fuze-time' in any of these explosives - granted there is a chance that it will go off on their face,
but to lay on top of something for a quarter of a second to maybe 3 or 4 full seconds waiting for it to detonate
is just beyond me.

When I was in there were no classes dedicated to jumping onto a gernade to save others -
they said if you see it when it comes in you get the hell out or throw it back at them.
Why in the hell do you assist the enemy's effort to kill you when those few precious seconds
can be better used to get rid of the threatening device?

Maybe just the visual image of having seen it in a John Wayne of an Audy Murphy movie is what drives them
to make the wrong decision when there may be a better way to cope with a desparate situation - critical thought fails to kick in
and that indivitual unerringly makes the worst, most dangerous, and definately the wrong last choice.

picking up a live grenade takes too much time, and 9 times out of 10, the thrower cooked it off before throwing it, so you'd only be killing your friends and dying. second, kicking the grenade out the door is too risky because kicking a moving 4-inch steel ball isnt the easiest thing to do in less than a second...

This SEAL most certainly saved lives that day by sacrificing his own, and nothing you say takes away from that. The man does deserve a medal and so much more.

In fact, you calling him stupid is beyond unforgiveable and it just might be one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen written here at P&N (on a very long list of disgusting statements here!).

sick.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Originally posted by: palehorse74

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
This 'Self-Martyrdom' has happened in all recent wars that I can think of. WWII, Korea, Veitnam, Iraq . . .
it makes a good 'Sacrificial Hero War Story - little more.
I always wonder why they choose to be dead heros and jump on the gernade to save thier buddies
and why not take that effort and toss the damn thing away so that they can save their buddies,
and themselves . . and live to fight another day.

What kind of training did they get that obliges them to kill themselves by falling on a bomb?
There is some 'fuze-time' in any of these explosives - granted there is a chance that it will go off on their face,
but to lay on top of something for a quarter of a second to maybe 3 or 4 full seconds waiting for it to detonate
is just beyond me.

When I was in there were no classes dedicated to jumping onto a gernade to save others -
they said if you see it when it comes in you get the hell out or throw it back at them.
Why in the hell do you assist the enemy's effort to kill you when those few precious seconds
can be better used to get rid of the threatening device?

Maybe just the visual image of having seen it in a John Wayne of an Audy Murphy movie is what drives them
to make the wrong decision when there may be a better way to cope with a desparate situation - critical thought fails to kick in
and that indivitual unerringly makes the worst, most dangerous, and definately the wrong last choice.

picking up a live grenade takes too much time, and 9 times out of 10, the thrower cooked it off before throwing it, so you'd only be killing your friends and dying. second, kicking the grenade out the door is too risky because kicking a moving 4-inch steel ball isnt the easiest thing to do in less than a second...

This SEAL most certainly saved lives that day by sacrificing his own, and nothing you say takes away from that. The man does deserve a medal and so much more.

In fact, you calling him stupid is beyond unforgiveable and it just might be one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen written here at P&N (on a very long list of disgusting statements here!).

sick.

I don't buy your 'die on the spot' logic - it's all speculation. Doesn't matter IF it was 'cooked-off' thats an unknown.
What is a fact is that a gernade in the gut is almost always fatal.
Just getting it moving away for ANY time and distance improves the chance of survival.
There is no Army course on 'Kill Kourself on a Gernade' and you know it.

Max Cleland is proof that some people have the luck to survive a gernade explosion in their immediate proximity -
although a devastating attack by Ann Coulter may happen to a Decorated War Vet can happen at any time.


And if you take the time to actually READ WHAT I WROTE - you will notice that I never called him STUPID -
I said I questioned what drives a person to make the last fatal response as a perferred choice.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk

Max Cleland is proof that some people have the luck to survive a gernade explosion in their immediate proximity -
although a devastating attack by Ann Coulter may happen to a Decorated War Vet can happen at any time.

Yes, but sometimes even a War hero deserves bashing.

The grenade does not knock out bonehead thinking.

 

[ProfJohn]

I made a change to the OP because I find it disgusting that we have turned a story about a man braver than all of us into a pissing contest about the war and whether it was a smart move for him to jump on a grenade.

Aren't you the same people who bitched like hell when Coulter made her comments about Cleland and are still throwing fits about the Swift Boat Vets and how bad their comments about what Kerry did or didn't do in Vietnam were?

This guy did an incredibly brave thing that may have saved the lives of several of his comrades, let's leave it at that.

 

[palehorse]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
I don't buy your 'die on the spot' logic - it's all speculation. Doesn't matter IF it was 'cooked-off' thats an unknown.
What is a fact is that a gernade in the gut is almost always fatal.
Just getting it moving away for ANY time and distance improves the chance of survival.
There is no Army course on 'Kill Kourself on a Gernade' and you know it.

Max Cleland is proof that some people have the luck to survive a gernade explosion in their immediate proximity -
although a devastating attack by Ann Coulter may happen to a Decorated War Vet can happen at any time.

And if you take the time to actually READ WHAT I WROTE - you will notice that I never called him STUPID -
I said I questioned what drives a person to make the last fatal response as a perferred choice.

Jumping on a grenade is only dumb if you're alone; otherwise, it truly is heroic. there may not be courses to teach you heroics, but jumping on a grenade is a known example of how to sacrifice yourself to save your buddies' lives. I'm not sure that I'd ever have to balls to do it, but I hope that I never have to find out. I also hope that I would find such courage if and when it's needed.

I'm not really sure wtf Ann Coulter has to do with this beyond your tendency to throw leftist rhetoric around in every debate, so no comment.

next, I believe that you said "not make the effort" and "make the wrong decision" and "that indivitual unerringly makes the worst, most dangerous, and definately the wrong last choice."...

I interpreted that as you calling the man's decision stupid or dumb. At least, that is how you came off... and I believe that is disgusting. You can obviously justify your insults and second-guessing of this obviously heroic deed, but how you do so is beyond me...

 

[jackschmittusa]

ProfJohn

I made a change to the OP because I find it disgusting that we have turned a story about a man braver than all of us into a pissing contest about the war and whether it was a smart move for him to jump on a grenade.

IMHO, you invited comments about the war with your original post but felt you would not receive any negative comments in a "hero thread". I think your edit was a good thing, but your whining is out of line.

palehorse74

You can obviously justify your insults and second-guessing of this obviously heroic deed, but how you do so is beyond me...

First, I know this was not addressed at me. But I would like to throw my 2 cents in as well. I won't bother to express any opinions about whether it was the "smart thing to do", as this only seems to generate emotional responses. But I cannot see how you consider it an insult for someone to offer an opinion about alternative responses in the situation.

I agree that the death of this sailor was by all commonly accepted definitions, heroic. But I cannot understand why you think is is improper to discuss the events if they include possible alternate actions and outcomes. The military itself is almost fanatical about anylizing any action, of any size, to determine its merits and deficiencies as a guide to future actions.

 

[palehorse]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
First, I know this was not addressed at me. But I would like to throw my 2 cents in as well. I won't bother to express any opinions about whether it was the "smart thing to do", as this only seems to generate emotional responses. But I cannot see how you consider it an insult for someone to offer an opinion about alternative responses in the situation.

I agree that the death of this sailor was by all commonly accepted definitions, heroic. But I cannot understand why you think is is improper to discuss the events if they include possible alternate actions and outcomes. The military itself is almost fanatical about anylizing any action, of any size, to determine its merits and deficiencies as a guide to future actions.

all of that would be fine and dandy if he hadn't done so while simultaneously insulting the hero involved.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Originally posted by: palehorse74

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
First, I know this was not addressed at me. But I would like to throw my 2 cents in as well. I won't bother to express any opinions about whether it was the "smart thing to do", as this only seems to generate emotional responses. But I cannot see how you consider it an insult for someone to offer an opinion about alternative responses in the situation.

I agree that the death of this sailor was by all commonly accepted definitions, heroic. But I cannot understand why you think is is improper to discuss the events if they include possible alternate actions and outcomes. The military itself is almost fanatical about anylizing any action, of any size, to determine its merits and deficiencies as a guide to future actions.

all of that would be fine and dandy if he hadn't done so while simultaneously insulting the hero involved.

You have the reading skill and comprehension of a sack of horseshit.

 

[Termagant]

Originally posted by: Atheus
The most impressive thing is it seems as if he didn't even think about it - a normal person would at least take half a second to look for another option, and maybe then it would be too late. This guy just did it without so much as a 'see you on the other side'.

A thought - would it be possible to have somthing like a 'bomb blanket' which can be thrown over a grenade or a IED and catch the shrapnel?

Yes, of course, a kevlar blanket or sum such may work. But suppose the enemy holds the grenade for a few seconds so there is less reaction time? After all, Iraqi martyr insurgents aren't too scared of bombs going off in their own face. Who is going to stand there with the blanket at the ready like a matador all the time?

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
I made a change to the OP because I find it disgusting that we have turned a story about a man braver than all of us into a pissing contest about the war and whether it was a smart move for him to jump on a grenade.

Aren't you the same people who bitched like hell when Coulter made her comments about Cleland and are still throwing fits about the Swift Boat Vets and how bad their comments about what Kerry did or didn't do in Vietnam were?

This guy did an incredibly brave thing that may have saved the lives of several of his comrades, let's leave it at that.

Once again the loving, all-encompassing liberals here have shown their true colors.

Some of the responses to both this thread and the one running in OT are deserving of vacations.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
I made a change to the OP because I find it disgusting that we have turned a story about a man braver than all of us into a pissing contest about the war and whether it was a smart move for him to jump on a grenade.

Aren't you the same people who bitched like hell when Coulter made her comments about Cleland and are still throwing fits about the Swift Boat Vets and how bad their comments about what Kerry did or didn't do in Vietnam were?

This guy did an incredibly brave thing that may have saved the lives of several of his comrades, let's leave it at that.

Once again the loving, all-encompassing liberals here have shown their true colors.

Some of the responses to both this thread and the one running in OT are deserving of vacations.

Vacations if we don't wave our flags and praise every soldier's "heroic sacrifice"? :roll:

 

[kingtas]

He was a true hero. He believed in something and died doing it.

Far better than regurgitating media induced hindsight all over this board.