Fort Bragg remembers fallen soldiers

"These are men who had choices. They are extraordinarily talented and intelligent men who could have done anything they wanted to do," Lt. Gen. John Mulholland, of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, said.

The names were added to a redesigned Fallen Special Operations Soldier Memorial Wall at Fort Bragg that is in tribute to 787 Army Special Operation soldiers since the Vietnam War and more than 255 in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Among them: Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael Montgomery.

Montgomery, 36, was a combat veteran with seven deployments, two in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and five in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

A native of Redmond, Wash., he died Oct. 26, when his helicopter crashed in western Afghanistan.

"From what everybody tells me, he was the best of the best in an elite group," his father, Mark Montgomery said. "So he got to do what he wanted to do, and there are not many of us who can say that."

Staff Sgt. Mark Stets Jr., 39, is another among the fallen.

He died Feb. 3 of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device in Pakistan.

Originally from California, he was a senior psychological operations sergeant on his second deployment in Operation Enduring Freedom. He had also served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

His mother, Nancy Stets, touched his name on the Memorial Wall.

"His name is up there with so many others. It’s not just about him but about all the men and women who have given their lives,” she said.

"You can see in his face and in his voice that he absolutely loved what he was doing," Stets' father, Mark Stets Sr., said. "He did what he loved to do."

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