--- description: President Obama will award Kyle Carpenter, who protected another solider from an explosion in Afghanistan, with the military's top honor title: Marine Kyle Carpenter Will Receive Medal of Honor image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Military](/tag/military/) ## Military Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Marine Who Blocked Soldier From Grenade Blast to Receive Medal of Honor  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 20, 2014 10:39 PM CUT  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 20, 2014 10:39 PM CUT **Correction appended, May 20** Cpl. Kyle Carpenter will become a Medal of Honor recipient for service in Afghanistan and Iraq, the White House [announced Monday](http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/05/19/president-obama-award-medal-honor "undefined"). Carpenter threw himself in front of another corporal in Marjah, Afghanistan, to shield him from a grenade blast — an act that cost him an eye and much of his jaw but earned him the military’s top honor, [the Associated Press reports](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=314290315 "undefined"). It took more than two years to reconstruct his face and mend other injuries, which included broken limbs and a collapsed long. The 24-year-old, who medically retired last year and is now a full-time student at the University of South Carolina, says he barely remembers the blast. “I remember my buddies yelling at me, it sounded like they were a football field away. I remember them yelling, you know, you’re gonna make it, you’re gonna make it. And I just kept trying to tell them that I was gonna die,” Carpenter told reporters during an interview at the Pentagon. President Barack Obama will award him the medal in a White House ceremony on June 19. _Correction: The original version of this story misstated the number of people awarded the Medal of Honor._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/106869/medal-of-honor-grenade-kyle-carpenter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/106869/medal-of-honor-grenade-kyle-carpenter/"},"headline":"Marine Who Blocked Soldier From Grenade Blast to Receive Medal of Honor","datePublished":"2014-05-20T22:39:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:57:22.396Z","description":"President Obama will award 24-year-old Kyle Carpenter, who protected another solider from an explosion in Afghanistan, with the military's top honor in June for his \"conspicuous gallantry\"","url":"https://time.com/106869/medal-of-honor-grenade-kyle-carpenter/","keywords":["Military","White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/106869/medal-of-honor-grenade-kyle-carpenter/","name":"Marine Who Blocked Soldier From Grenade Blast to Receive Medal of Honor"}}]}] ```