'He never complained'

Staff Sgt. Thaddeus Montgomery loved being outside. Whether it was the beauty of Yellowstone National Park, the raw desert heat of Iraq, or the rugged mountain terrain of Afghanistan, Montgomery felt at home in the wild.

The Colorado Springs Gazette, which always does a fine job telling the stories of fallen soldiers once stationed at Fort Carson, reports on the 29-year-old warrior's life, which ended Wednesday at "Camp Vegas," located at the Korengal Outpost in Afghanistan. According to the Pentagon, the circumstances of his death are under investigation. His family is eagerly seeking answers from the military about the incident.

Reporter Bill Vogrin spoke to Montgomery's mother, Debra Hays, about how her son lived life to the fullest.

“He’s one of those dreamers,” Hays said of her son. “He always wanted to go explore the world.”

That itch to see the world, combined with his love of the outdoors, explained why he adapted so well to life in the Army, she said.

“He loved the outdoors,” she said Saturday from her home in Florence, Ky. “He liked roughing it. Working in the outdoors. He never complained about how rough it was in Iraq or Afghanistan.”

Montgomery being away from him mom, three-year-old son, and other loved ones on many overseas deployments was always tough for the family, but Hays got to see her son on television in December, when Phoenix affiliate KTVK aired a segment with him and two other soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. The discussion was spurred by a letter he wrote to Arizona Highways editor Robert Stieve, requesting some copies of his magazine to read over in Afghanistan. Stieve, who developed a close bond with Montgomery in the soldier's last months, wrote a moving, beautifully worded tribute to his friend on Thursday:

He had no interest in the spotlight that we were shining on him. All he wanted was some magazines. What he didn’t realize was that in the process of reaching out to us, he was connecting an otherwise disconnected group of Americans with a world that seemed a million miles away. Through Sergeant Montgomery, our staff and many of our readers gained a new perspective on the war, and also some degree of enlightenment. Of course, that perspective and enlightenment came with an overwhelming cost. Without Sergeant Montgomery’s face and his name and our personal relationship, the news of his death wouldn’t have felt any different than the thousands of deaths that preceded his in Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam and all the rest. But as it is, the shocking reality of his death is hard to comprehend. For us, Thaddeus Montgomery isn’t just a name in a newspaper. Thaddeus Montgomery is a human being, and more importantly, he’s a part of our family.

The KTVK-TV segment about the interview Stieve conducted with Montgomery, who will be buried February 4 at Arlington National Cemetery, is embedded below. Montgomery's television appearance was the last time the soldier's mother got to see her son's smiling face. The Unknown Soldiers sends its deepest condolences to everyone acquainted with this American hero, who lived a life of indelible consequence in the great outdoors.