Posted on 05/23/2014 6:29:00 AM PDT by rktman
A grateful nation is honoring a living hero this June. Marine Cpl. Kyle Carpenter threw himself on a grenade to protect his friends on Nov. 21, 2010.
He lived, but his wounds were grievous. According to Huffington Post, “he lost his right eye and injured his left, both eardrums were blown, most of his teeth were blown out and much of his jaw was missing. His right arm was shattered, his left arm, wrist and hand had multiple breaks, his right lung collapsed and he had shrapnel wounds in his legs.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Yes, thank God for such bravery.
Thank you for the post, and thank You Lord, for men such as this.
My God, what a man! God bless this Marine and all Marines!
obama says: “If you can’t kill ‘em, maim ‘em.”
Deploy prayer rug.
Wow, his body armor held up and protected his vital organs. He probably had no idea he would live.
They don’t make em any tougher than this. God bless and protect this true hero for all his days.
I really hate these ‘hit-and-run’ stories about heroes (and sourced from HuffPo?). It doesn’t even really touch on the man’s character; I’ll have to find out more.
Fitting footnote for a somber weekend:
RIP Sergeant Rafael Peralta (April 7, 1979 – November 15, 2004), who should have been awarded MOH. (I’m sure there are others; no disrespect there)
And, on a more personal note, in memoriam to all our boy’s buddies that made the ultimate sacrifice, in part seeing his safe return home, and to the part of our boy that’s still not come home from battle...
No one who thought about the consequences would throw himself on a live grenade. This wasn’t just an act of courage, it was an act of INSTINCTIVE courage, a purely selfless sacrifice that represents the absolute best Man can be. Any world becomes a better place when a guy like this walks in.
Yes, this is what every man hopes he will be when the chips are down, but very few are. In every generation we get just a handful of guys like this.
May he continue to be a shining example to all.
I have heard senior NCOs threaten soldiers that if they ever jump on a hand grenade, if they survive, the NCO will personally shoot them for being an idiot.
http://www.marines.mil/moh/Citation.aspx
In this case, it would be more appropriate to give him a silver star citation. The Medal of Honor should be reserved for those who both saved their unit *and* caused, by their action then enemy to lose a battle.
. . .”caused, by their action then enemy to lose a battle.”
Really?
I’ve been an advocate of his MOH since I first read of his incident. I didn’t know until yesterday that he was reared in the town with which I live. It is an honor to know that someone like him grew up here.
During the Civil War, the MoH was handed out like cookies, sometimes even given to entire units. However, by World War I, the consensus was that it should only be given if the actions had single-handedly resulted in a significant loss by the enemy.
For example Sergeant York, who received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, taking 32 machine guns, killing 28 German soldiers, and capturing 132 others.
Or Audie Murphy, in WWII, who received the Medal of Honor after single-handedly holding off an entire company of Germans for an hour in France in January 1945, then leading a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition.
But from there, the consensus changed so that the MoH recipient could also be someone who saved many friendly lives during combat at grave personal risk, which was essential still, for the winning of a major battle.
This status quo lasted through Korea and Vietnam.
However, though their were pitched battles in both Iraq and Afghanistan, with MoH level heroism involved, the Democrats refused *any* MoH citations during the presidency of W. Bush, and they still reject most any other recipients than hand grenade jumpers by Obama. He has also given questionable MoH citations to soldiers of previous wars solely on the basis of their ethnic group or religion. Which is contemptible.
It should not be underestimated how much Democrats hate citations for military heroism. In the past several years they have tried to create objectionable high level citations for things like saving civilian lives, and for drone pilots, which were supposed to rate higher than other combat citations. Fortunately, both went nowhere, as the military rank and file greeted them with disgust.
Jesus says no love is greater than he who lays his life down for another, or others. He lived, but he still put his life out there, and that is the ultimate form of love.
So you’re right, the world would be a far better place with more men like this.
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