Kyle Carpenter, a Marine Corps veteran, will receive the Medal of Honor later this year.
Carpenter, a native of Glibert, SC, was seriously wounded after a grenade attack in Afghanistan in 2010.
The 24-year-old medically retired corporal will become the service’s third recipient from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq of the nation’s highest combat valor award, reported the Military Times.
The date of the ceremony, which will be this year, hasn’t been set yet.
Carpenter declined to comment.
The award stems from Carpenter intentionally covering a grenade to save the life of his friend, Lance Cpl. Nicholas Eufrazio, on November 21, 2010.
They were standing guard on a rooftop in Afghanistan.
Both survived the blast but both were badly wounded. Carpenter lost his right eye and most of his teeth. His jaw was broken and his arm was, too.
Eufrazio was left with shrapnel wounds to his brain that left him unable to speak until recently.
Troops who served with them say that Carpenter saved Eufrazio’s life.
