"We are honoring the dead, and these people served their country and they deserve at least a little respect,” Paul Monti, Father of Jared Monti MOHR

SFC Jared Monti learned many lessons from his Father and it is no suprise that his Father took on a fight to honor his son and all others on Memorial Day at the Bourne National Veterans Cemetery....I salute your efforts sir....Glad to see you still fight for those who cannot do so.

Like Middleboro, Raynham, MA raises some dedicated citizen soldiers in Southeastern Massachusetts....always have and always will.


Medal of Honor recipient's father leads effort to place thousands of flags on vets' graves
May 24, 2011 04:38 PM
By Jenna Duncan, Boston Globe Correspondent

The first Veterans’ Day after his son was killed in Afghanistan, Paul Monti went to visit the site where his son, Sergeant First Class Jared Monti, is buried at Bourne National Veterans’ Cemetery, with plastic American flags in hand.

He noticed none of the graves had flags, even for the holiday. When Monti inquired, he learned flags were restricted from the grounds because they got in the way of maintenance.

“They didn’t allow flags on individual graves, and that made me quite upset,” he said.

The Raynham man has spent the four years since trying to reverse this rule, and now, this Memorial Day, he and a group of volunteers will place 56,000 flags on the graves at the cemetery, he said.

Somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people will join Monti Saturday to place the flags, he said.

“I think I’ll probably be elated once I see it done, but in a somber sort of way,” he said.

"We are honoring the dead, and these people served their country and they deserve at least a little respect,” he said.

Volunteers are welcome to attend, or can donate money to the SFC Jared C. Monti Memorial Scholarship Fund to cover the cost of the flags.

Jared Monti was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism when his patrol was attacked in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan in 2006.