This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories Memorial Day special.

All show long, we're honoring our nation's fallen

heroes. You might know the song I Drive Your Truck by Lee Bryce. It went to the top of the

country charts in 2014, but do you know the story of the man who inspired the song? His name was

Jared Monty, and he was a hero of the highest caliber.

Jared received the Medal of Honor for his actions in Afghanistan in 2006.

Here to tell Jared's story is Paul Monti, his father.

I think his lot in life was to try to bring joy to anybody and everybody that he ever met. Well, Jared was a very adventurous kid. There wasn't a tree too high for him to climb or a hill.

There wasn't a body of water too wide, too deep for him to cross.

There were certain characteristics in him that became apparent as he grew.

We like to talk about his life in terms of three principles that he lived by, the first of which was

to always try your hardest. And this we noticed with him, whether it was sports or school,

or anything else that he had to do. He was a kid that always gave 100% to everything he did.

His second principal was to never give up, and that became also a parent.

One of the stories I like to tell regarding that was he was a really, really good basketball player.

He was pretty much the shortest kid in his class, but he was a heck of a basketball player.

And when he went to middle school, he tried out for the JV team

and he was the last one cut from the team.

His fellow players said they were all going to quit

because Monty wasn't picked.

And Jared got them together and talked to them and said,

...