In fact, Army Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta was the first living soldier to be presented the nation’s highest military decoration by Obama.
Monti said a White House secretary phoned him Friday afternoon to ask if he was available to speak with the president. Obama then got on the line.
After apologizing, the president told Monti that he realized right after the speech that he had made a mistake, Monti said.
“He could have just let it go,’’ Monti said. “He could have sent a statement to the press; he could have had an aide call me. But he was man enough to call me himself and I think that the highest honor you can get from someone is a personal apology.’’
Reince Priebus, head of the Republican National Committee, blasted the president over the error in a statement to CBS News, saying “mistakes seem to happen’’ when Obama is not following a script.
Jared Monti, who enlisted in the United States Army in 1993, was killed June 21, 2006, receiving fatal wounds while trying to rescue a fellow soldier during a firefight. The president presented Monti with the Medal of Honor posthumously in a 2009 White House ceremony attended by the Monti family. “It was written long ago that ‘the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet, notwithstanding, go out to meet it,’ ’’ Obama said in presenting the award. “Jared Monti saw the danger before him. And he went out to meet it.’’
The White House has acknowledged the president’s mistake. A spokesman was unavailable yesterday.
Paul Monti said June has been a “difficult period’’ for the family, as this month marks the five-year anniversary of his son’s death.
Mark Arsenault can be reached at marsenault@globe.com
