Retired Marine Corps Cpl. William "Kyle" Carpenter will receive the Medal of Honor at a June 19 White House ceremony for heroic actions during a Nov. 21, 2010 battle in Afghanistan - actions that cost him his right eye and most of his jaw.
Carpenter was an Automatic Rifleman with Company F, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 1, 1st Marine Division (Forward), I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward). On that fateful November day in Helmand Province, according to The Pentagon Channel, the Taliban lobbed a grenade at Carpenter and his friend Lance Cpl. Nicholas Eufrazio:
Carpenter placed himself between an incoming grenade and [Eufrazio], absorbing much of the blast.
Carpenter explains in a video made for Marine Corps Times that he was so severely injured when he arrived at Camp Bastion for medical treatment, he was labeled PEA (patient expired on arrival).
But Carpenter fought back. He underwent more than 30 surgeries on the road to recovery. He was medically retired from the Marine Corps in July 2013, and is now a full-time student at the University of South Carolina - running marathons and skydiving in his spare time.
Eufrazio survived the blast, but with severe brain injuries.
Carpenter will be the eighth living recipient of the Medal of Honor for heroic actions in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
