June 02, 2008
Medal of Honor Presented to Family of Soldier Killed in Iraq
Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis was only 19 when he saved the lives of 4 friends by smothering with his body a grenade thrown into their Humvee. Today he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, with his family and the men he saved in attendance at the White House ceremony (via AP):
"No one outside this man's family can know the true weight of their loss. But in words spoken long ago, we are told how to measure the kind of devotion that Ross McGinnis showed on his last day: 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.'"The president spoke in the East Room at a ceremony attended by Vice President Dick Cheney, prior recipients of the Medal of Honor, military leaders, McGinnis' parents, Tom and Romayne, and his two sisters, Becky and Katie. The four soldiers protected by McGinnis' actions were all in attendance.
McGinnis was in the gunner's hatch of a Humvee on Dec. 4, 2006, on a patrol in Iraq, when a grenade sailed past him and into the vehicle where the four other soldiers sat. He shouted a warning, then jumped on the grenade while it was lodged near the vehicle's radio.
"By that split-second decision, Private McGinnis lost his own life, and he saved his comrades," Bush said.
RIP Pfc. McGinnis.
A video tribute to Ross by one of the men he saved (below the fold)
