Michael Anthony Monsoor, U.S. Navy

Hero Card 218, Card Pack 19
Photo courtesy of the National Veterans Memorial and Museum (digitally enhanced), used with family permission.

Hometown: Garden Grove, CA
Branch: U.S. Navy
Unit: Delta Platoon, SEAL Team 3
Military Honors: Medal of Honor, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: September 29, 2006 - KIA in Ramadi, Anbar Province, Iraq
Age: 25
Conflict: Iraq War, 2003-2011

Born on April 5, 1981, Michael Monsoor was raised to understand the meaning of service to others. His father, George Monsoor, was a Marine Veteran and his mother Sally a social worker. Mike’s brothers, Jim and Joe, also served in the U.S. Marine Corps. His sister Sara became a pediatric nurse.

In Michael’s posthumous Medal of Honor presentation, President George W. Bush related a childhood story given to him by the Monsoor family:

Mike had no complaints after the first week of [kindergarten]—until someone broke the news to him that he had to go back the next week. Many mornings, Mike refused to put on the nice clothes for school. Instead, he insisted on wearing mismatched outfits. Mike’s mother soon discovered there was no stopping the determined young boy from mixing plaids and stripes. And years later, there would be no stopping an even more determined young man from donning a uniform of Navy Blue.

Monsoor graduated from Garden Grove High School in California in 1999, where he played football for the Argonauts. He enlisted in the United States Navy in March 2001. After basic training and quartermaster training, Monsoor was assigned as a master-at-arms in Sigonella, Sicily.

He was determined to join the elite Navy SEALs and in was accepted to undergo the grueling 25-week Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training at the Naval Special Warfare Training Center in Coronado, California.

A broken heel cut his dream short. But he remained in the Navy and persevered until he had a second opportunity to complete the training, earning his Navy SEAL trident in March 2005.

Assigned to SEAL Team 3, Petty Officer Second Class Michael A. Monsoor was deployed to Iraq in 2006 as part of Task Unit Bruiser, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He Served as both a heavy machine gunner and a communications operator.

“He was kind of a jokester. Every time you’d see him, he’d have kinda like this grin on his face,” said fellow SEAL, CWO Benjamin Oleson in a U.S. Navy video. “So you don’t know whether he was scheming on something, or if that was just his…southern California laid-back nature.”

Another SEAL teammate, LCDR Leif Babin, added that Monsoor was “just a hard-chargin’ guy—one of those guys with just a great attitude, always put out, always had a smile—had this kind of crooked smile on his face—all the time. And you could just count on him for stuff.”

According to Oleson and Babin, SEAL Team 3 was in the thick of the fight in 2006, deployed to Ramadi in Anbar Province, where al Qaeda had control over two thirds of the city. Babin recalls, “For nearly six months, [we were] in almost daily and dangerous urban combat operations.”

PO2 Monsoor would earn a Silver Star medal for his courage in rescuing a wounded fellow SEAL on May 9, 2006. His citation reads, in part: “with complete disregard for his own safety, [Monsoor] exposed himself to heavy enemy fire in order to provide suppressive fire and fight his way to the wounded SEAL’s position. He continued to provide effective suppressive fire while simultaneously dragging the wounded SEAL to safety.”

On September 29, 2006—St. Michael’s Day—PO2 Monsoor’s team left on its final mission of the deployment, about a week before returning home. Monsoor and two fellow SEALS were positioned on a residential rooftop as a sniper overwatch element. An enemy grenade was tossed over the low roof wall and bounced off Monsoor’s chest.

His quick reaction and selfless courage would cost PO2 Michael A. Monsoor his life—and earn him the nation’s highest military honor. On April 8, 2008, President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Honor to Mike’s parents, George and Sally Monsoor. The citation reads:

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Master-At-Arms Second Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor, United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Automatic Weapons Gunner in SEAL Team 3, Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula, in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM on 29 September 2006.

As a member of a combined SEAL and Iraqi Army sniper overwatch element, tasked with providing early warning and stand-off protection from a rooftop in an insurgent-held sector of Ar Ramadi, Iraq, Petty Officer Monsoor distinguished himself by his exceptional bravery in the face of grave danger. In the early morning, insurgents prepared to execute a coordinated attack by reconnoitering the area around the element’s position. Element snipers thwarted the enemy’s initial attempt by eliminating two insurgents. The enemy continued to assault the element, engaging them with a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire. As enemy activity increased, Petty Officer Monsoor took position with his machine gun between two teammates on an outcropping of the roof.

While the SEALs vigilantly watched for enemy activity, an insurgent threw a hand grenade from an unseen location, which bounced off Petty Officer Monsoor’s chest and landed in front of him. Although only he could have escaped the blast, Petty Officer Monsoor chose instead to protect his teammates. Instantly and without regard for his own safety, he threw himself onto the grenade to absorb the force of the explosion with his body, saving the lives of his two teammates. By his undaunted courage, fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of certain death, Petty Officer Monsoor gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

In his hometown, Monsoor’s alma mater, Garden Grove High School, named Michael A. Monsoor Memorial Stadium in his honor. In Lemon Grove, California, the Michael A. Monsoor VFW Post 2082 now bears his name.

On June 20, 2016, the U.S. Navy launched the USS Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001), a new high-tech guided missile destroyer.

PO2 Michael Monsoor’s story is captured in the book, Defend Us in Battle, written by his father George, and Rose M. Rea.