BlueForce
10-30-08, 08:51
DDG 1001 named for MoH recipient Monsoor
10/30
Defense News
One of the Navy's largest new surface warships will bear the name of a Navy SEAL who received the nation's highest award for valor.
"DDG 1001, the second ship in our newest class of destroyers, will be named after Michael Monsoor," Navy Secretary Donald Winter said remarks prepared for an address to be given Oct. 29 in New York.
"Michael Monsoor's name will now be linked with one of our nation's most visible examples of military power - a U.S. Navy warship," Winter said in the address prepared for a Navy SEAL Warrior Fund dinner.
The Michael Monsoor will be the second DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class advanced destroyer. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding is expected to begin construction of the ship next year at its Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., with delivery projected to take place in 2014.
Master-at-Arms 2nd Class (SEAL) Michael Monsoor is one of two sailors awarded the Medal of Honor since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. The first, Lt. Michael Murphy, is the namesake of DDG 112, now under construction at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine, and is expected to be delivered in 2011.
Monsoor was one of about 32s SEALs fighting with U.S. Army, Marine Corps and Iraqi troops to take the insurgent-controlled city of Ramadi in September 2006, Dick Couch, author of "The Sheriff of Ramadi," told Navy Times earlier this year. Rather than make a traditional invasion sweep through the dangerous capital of Anbar province, as U.S. forces had done in the battle of Fallujah, regular and special operations troops advanced piecemeal through neighborhoods in the city, cleared out enemies and held the territory in an "ink-blot strategy," Couch said.
Monsoor and his SEAL teammates provided reconnaissance and cover for other troops as they fought in the city, and often bore the brunt of intense enemy attacks, Couch said.
On Sept. 29, the day he died, Monsoor was stationed with his machine gun on a rooftop between two SEAL snipers providing cover for an Army unit working in a rail yard. The two men were lying prone, aiming their rifles through holes blasted in the wall, when a grenade sailed onto the rooftop and bounced off Monsoor's chest.
According to the official Navy biography, there was no way either of the teammates could have escaped.
"He had a clear chance to escape, but in his mind, it was not a choice at all," President Bush said in April when presenting the medal to Monsoor's family.
Monsoor dove on the grenade and smothered its explosion, saving the lives of the two SEALs.
Monsoor is the first SEAL to receive the Medal of Honor for service in Iraq. Murphy was posthumously given the award last year after he was killed in Afghanistan making a last radio call to save his four-man squad after an ambush. Monsoor is the fifth service member to receive the Medal of Honor for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Monsoor's other decorations included the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with combat "V" and the Purple Heart.
Sally Monsoor, Michael's mother, was expected to attend the New York dinner. (c) Defense News
10/30
Defense News
One of the Navy's largest new surface warships will bear the name of a Navy SEAL who received the nation's highest award for valor.
"DDG 1001, the second ship in our newest class of destroyers, will be named after Michael Monsoor," Navy Secretary Donald Winter said remarks prepared for an address to be given Oct. 29 in New York.
"Michael Monsoor's name will now be linked with one of our nation's most visible examples of military power - a U.S. Navy warship," Winter said in the address prepared for a Navy SEAL Warrior Fund dinner.
The Michael Monsoor will be the second DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class advanced destroyer. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding is expected to begin construction of the ship next year at its Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., with delivery projected to take place in 2014.
Master-at-Arms 2nd Class (SEAL) Michael Monsoor is one of two sailors awarded the Medal of Honor since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began. The first, Lt. Michael Murphy, is the namesake of DDG 112, now under construction at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine, and is expected to be delivered in 2011.
Monsoor was one of about 32s SEALs fighting with U.S. Army, Marine Corps and Iraqi troops to take the insurgent-controlled city of Ramadi in September 2006, Dick Couch, author of "The Sheriff of Ramadi," told Navy Times earlier this year. Rather than make a traditional invasion sweep through the dangerous capital of Anbar province, as U.S. forces had done in the battle of Fallujah, regular and special operations troops advanced piecemeal through neighborhoods in the city, cleared out enemies and held the territory in an "ink-blot strategy," Couch said.
Monsoor and his SEAL teammates provided reconnaissance and cover for other troops as they fought in the city, and often bore the brunt of intense enemy attacks, Couch said.
On Sept. 29, the day he died, Monsoor was stationed with his machine gun on a rooftop between two SEAL snipers providing cover for an Army unit working in a rail yard. The two men were lying prone, aiming their rifles through holes blasted in the wall, when a grenade sailed onto the rooftop and bounced off Monsoor's chest.
According to the official Navy biography, there was no way either of the teammates could have escaped.
"He had a clear chance to escape, but in his mind, it was not a choice at all," President Bush said in April when presenting the medal to Monsoor's family.
Monsoor dove on the grenade and smothered its explosion, saving the lives of the two SEALs.
Monsoor is the first SEAL to receive the Medal of Honor for service in Iraq. Murphy was posthumously given the award last year after he was killed in Afghanistan making a last radio call to save his four-man squad after an ambush. Monsoor is the fifth service member to receive the Medal of Honor for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Monsoor's other decorations included the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with combat "V" and the Purple Heart.
Sally Monsoor, Michael's mother, was expected to attend the New York dinner. (c) Defense News