Within seconds of the ambush, Michael Roberts steered his M997 ambulance toward the fighting.

Kilo Company, part of Operating Iraqi Freedom, was engaged in a heavy firefight on the right flank as Roberts reached the wounded Marine, who had been struck with shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade.

Roberts -- an American High School graduate and Navy hospital corpsman serving with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment -- helped stabilize the Marine, who had suffered a life-threatening abdominal injury.

Driving back to the medevac landing zone with the wounded Marine in his ambulance, Roberts made a horrific discovery.

http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stori...943437,00.html