“For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sergeant First Class Monti distinguished himself at the cost of his life while serving as a team leader with the Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3d Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan on 21 June 2006. On that day, Sergeant First Class Monti was leading a mission to gather intelligence and to direct fires against the enemy in support of a squadron-size interdiction mission. While at an observation position on top of a mountain ridge, Sergeant First Class Monti’s sixteen-man patrol came under attack by a superior force consisting of as many as 50 enemy fighters. On the verge of being overrun, Sergeant First Class Monti directed his patrol to set up a hasty defensive position behind a collection of rocks. He then began to call for indirect fire from a nearby support base; accurately bringing the rounds upon the enemy who had closed to within 50 meters of his position. While still calling for fire, Sergeant First Class Monti personally engaged the enemy with his rifle and a grenade, successfully disrupting an attempt to flank the patrol. Sergeant First Class Monti then realized that one of his Soldiers was lying wounded and exposed in the open ground between the advancing enemy and the patrol’s position. With complete disregard for his own safety, Sergeant First Class Monti moved from behind the cover of the rocks into the face of withering enemy fire. After closing within meters of his wounded Soldier, the heavy volume of fire forced Sergeant First Class Monti to seek cover. Sergeant First Class Monti then gathered himself and rose again to maneuver through a barrage of enemy fire to save his wounded Soldier. Again, Sergeant First Class Monti was driven back by relentless enemy fire. Unwilling to leave his Soldier wounded and exposed, Sergeant First Class Monti made another attempt to move across open terrain and through the enemy fire to the aide of his wounded Soldier. On his third attempt, Sergeant First Class Monti was mortally wounded, sacrificing his own life in an effort to save his Soldier. Sergeant First Class Monti’s acts of heroism inspired the patrol to fight off the larger enemy force. Sergeant First Class Monti’s immeasurable courage and uncommon valor were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, 3d Squadron 71st Cavalry Regiment, the 3d Brigade Combat Team, the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), and the United States Army.’’

The sound of feet shuffling in the woods, high on a ridge in remote Afghanistan, was the only warning that Sergeant Jared C. Monti and the 15 men under his command were about to be attacked. Before they could even react, they were bombarded with rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun fire.

The ambush by mountain tribesmen allied with the Taliban came so suddenly and with such ferocity that some members of Monti’s unit “had their weapons literally shot out of their hands,’’ according to an Army report.

Monti, a 30-year-old staff sergeant from Raynham, shouted orders and radioed for support as he found cover behind some large rocks. An officer a few miles away asked whether he could pinpoint the enemy’s position.

“Sir, I can’t give you a better read or I’m gonna eat an RPG,’’ Monti replied.

But later, when one of his men was wounded and lying in the open, Monti braved intense fire to try to rescue him - not once, but three times. It cost him his life.

Three years later, after an Army review of Monti’s actions that day, President Obama will award him the Medal of Honor, the highest recognition for valor in the US military. When Monti’s parents, Paul and Janet, accept the award in a White House ceremony on Sept. 17, it will be only the sixth time the Medal of Honor has been awarded since Sept. 11, 2001, and the first time someone from Massachusetts has earned it since the Vietnam War.

Monti’s story reveals not just the courageous actions of a 12-year Army veteran. It also illustrates the extreme conditions of combat in Afghanistan, where increasing numbers of US forces are dying, and the sheer chaos of the war.

Everything went wrong for Monti and his patrol. The unit was left on that narrow ridge longer than intended, exposing it to a much larger enemy. And while Monti’s display of “extreme personal courage and extraordinary self-sacrifice,’’ as the Army described it, helped turn the tide, disaster struck again when the soldier Monti tried to save was killed in a freak accident while being airlifted out. Including Monti, four soldiers died.

“True valor is not defined so much by results,’’ an Army general wrote in recommending Monti for the medal, “as it is by the depth of conviction that inspires its expression. On rare occasions, the actions of men are so extraordinary that the nobility rests, not in their outcome, but in the courage of their undertaking.’’

‘He was very humble’

When Charlie Witkus learned his buddy Jared had been killed, he organized a “Viking’’ funeral.

After his burial at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, Monti’s friends collected cards, letters, and other mementos of him and set them ablaze on a makeshift pyre floating on a Taunton pond.

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