thedrifter
01-13-07, 01:02 PM
Leatherneck MOH statistics
60 Marines have received award for covering explosives
By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jan 13, 2007 11:16:34 EST
Until this week, 59 Marines had been awarded the Medal of Honor for sacrificing themselves on enemy explosives — most often hand grenades — to save their comrades from the lethal blasts.
At a White House presentation ceremony Jan. 11, 22-year-old Cpl. Jason Dunham took his place among them, the 60th Marine to receive the nation’s highest honor for making that sacrifice.
Dunham was severely wounded in Karabilah, Iraq, on April 14, 2004, after using his helmet and body to absorb the blast of a grenade dropped by the insurgent he was wrestling with at the time. He succumbed to his wounds at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., eight days later.
A review of Medal of Honor citations at an online database shows that no other action is so consistently recognized with the award than selflessly absorbing an explosion. The database also shows that the Corps has been producing men of Dunham’s caliber for more than 60 years.
According to the database, the list began in 1943 on Bougainville Island when Pfc. Henry Gurke covered a grenade with his body to shield a nearby Marine who was manning a weapon with more firepower than his own.
Like Dunham, Gurke died of his wounds and received the Medal of Honor posthumously. But among these 60 select Marine recipients are seven who lived to receive their medal in person.
Pfc. Jack Lucas used his body to cover two grenades during fighting on Iwo Jima, leaping on one, reaching for the other and pinning both between his chest and the black volcanic ash and sand below him. The explosion riddled his body with shrapnel and blew his right eye out of its socket, but doctors would later tell him that the volcanic ash in his wounds actually saved him from bleeding to death.
Though he eventually recovered, Lucas said the wounds he suffered on Iwo Jima have caused him pain his whole life and talks about a piece of shrapnel still lodged behind his eye, just millimeters from severing his ocular nerve.
But he said he has no regrets and that hearing stories about the children and grandchildren of the Marines he saved more than makes up for the pain he’s suffered.
Ellie
60 Marines have received award for covering explosives
By John Hoellwarth - Staff writer
Posted : Saturday Jan 13, 2007 11:16:34 EST
Until this week, 59 Marines had been awarded the Medal of Honor for sacrificing themselves on enemy explosives — most often hand grenades — to save their comrades from the lethal blasts.
At a White House presentation ceremony Jan. 11, 22-year-old Cpl. Jason Dunham took his place among them, the 60th Marine to receive the nation’s highest honor for making that sacrifice.
Dunham was severely wounded in Karabilah, Iraq, on April 14, 2004, after using his helmet and body to absorb the blast of a grenade dropped by the insurgent he was wrestling with at the time. He succumbed to his wounds at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., eight days later.
A review of Medal of Honor citations at an online database shows that no other action is so consistently recognized with the award than selflessly absorbing an explosion. The database also shows that the Corps has been producing men of Dunham’s caliber for more than 60 years.
According to the database, the list began in 1943 on Bougainville Island when Pfc. Henry Gurke covered a grenade with his body to shield a nearby Marine who was manning a weapon with more firepower than his own.
Like Dunham, Gurke died of his wounds and received the Medal of Honor posthumously. But among these 60 select Marine recipients are seven who lived to receive their medal in person.
Pfc. Jack Lucas used his body to cover two grenades during fighting on Iwo Jima, leaping on one, reaching for the other and pinning both between his chest and the black volcanic ash and sand below him. The explosion riddled his body with shrapnel and blew his right eye out of its socket, but doctors would later tell him that the volcanic ash in his wounds actually saved him from bleeding to death.
Though he eventually recovered, Lucas said the wounds he suffered on Iwo Jima have caused him pain his whole life and talks about a piece of shrapnel still lodged behind his eye, just millimeters from severing his ocular nerve.
But he said he has no regrets and that hearing stories about the children and grandchildren of the Marines he saved more than makes up for the pain he’s suffered.
Ellie