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Wounded Marine veteran from South Carolina to receive Medal of Honor: report
Retired Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter, 24, reportedly will receive the military honor for leaping on a grenade and saving a fellow Marine during an attack in Afghanistan in 2010.
BY PHILIP CAULFIELD / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
March 6, 2014
Marine Corps veteran Kyle Carpenter was severely wounded in Afghanistan in November 2010 when he shielded another Marine from a grenade. He reportedly will receive the Medal of Honor.
A Marine veteran who was severely injured in Afghanistan when he jumped on a grenade to save another Marine's life is set to receive the nation's highest military honor, according to a report.
Retired Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter, 24, will become the third Marine since 9/11 to receive the Medal of Honor in a yet-to-be announced ceremony at the White House, the Marine Corps Times reported.
The South Carolina native lost his right eye and most of his teeth and had his jaw and arm mangled when he leapt on a grenade to protect a friend during an attack in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in November 2010.
The other Marine, Lance Cpl. Nicholas Eufrazio, 21, was also critically injured in the blast, but survived.
A Marine Corps spokesman wouldn't comment on the report and referred questions about the award to the White House.
OPERATION KYLE/FACEBOOK
Kyle Carpenter, saved a fellow Marine's life when he jumped on a grenade during an attack in the southern Helmand province in November 2010.
The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carpenter, who goes by his middle name, couldn't be reached.
According to the Times, an official investigation into Carpenter's battlefield heroics was initially complicated by a few factors, including the fact that neither he nor Eufrazio could remember what happened.
There were also no witnesses to the attack, which occurred as Carpenter and Eufrazio were positioned on a rooftop in the southern province's Marja district.
But troops who served with them, including a medical specialist who treated the wounded pair, said they were certain Carpenter shielded his pal.
Further, forensic evidence at the scene showed the grenade detonated underneath Carpenter's body.
Both men were treated at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
Eufrazio was hit in the head by a chunk of shrapnel that pierced his brain.
He has been slowly recovering and recently regained the ability to speak.
"We knew the area we were moving into was one of the rougher areas," he said in a video interview.
In it, he wore a glass eye with an emblem of the Purple Heart in the iris.
Purple shrapnel scars and remnants of other wounds lined his face and head.
"I'm still here and kicking, and I have all my limbs, so you'll never hear me complain," he said.
If awarded, Carpenter would become the first person from South Carolina to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.
Friends in his home state said they wouldn't be surprised.
"[Kyle] is one of the most genuine human beings I've ever met," Rev. Eric Wolf, a Lutheran minister and family friend, told The Herald newspaper. "He deserves it."
True heroism.
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