First Marine to earn the Medal of Honor in more than 3 decades

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4465340.html

Emotional recognition for a gallant act
New Yorker is the first Marine to earn the Medal of Honor in more than 3 decades
WASHINGTON — President Bush awarded the Medal of Honor on Thursday to Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, who on a dusty road in western Iraq in 2004 threw his Kevlar helmet and his body on an insurgent's grenade, saving the lives of two Marines while sacrificing his own.

Established by a joint resolution of Congress during the Civil War and presented 3,462 times, the Medal of Honor is awarded for gallantry in the face of enemy attack that is above and beyond the call of duty.

Dunham, who was 22 when he died, is the first Marine to earn the medal since 1970 and the second service member, after Army Sgt. Paul Ray Smith, to receive it for bravery in Iraq.

Bush praised Dunham's heroism during a White House ceremony Thursday. "By his selflessness, Cpl. Dunham saved the lives of two of his men and showed the world what it means to be a Marine," he said.

As her husband, Dan, looked on, Deb Dunham, Jason's mother, fought back tears as Bush presented her with the citation.
Bush had announced in November, at the dedication of the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico, Va., that a Marine was being awarded the nation's highest military honor — prompting a booming "Oo-rah!" from the largely Marine audience.

His parents — his mother is a home economics teacher and his father a factory worker in Scio, N.Y. — were at his bedside when he died eight days after the attack, grateful to a doctor in Iraq who held their son's hand as he lay in a field hospital, believing that the gesture of kindness kept him alive long enough for them to reach him.
"That's a gift to us," Dan Dunham has said.

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I would like to think I am capable of such a sacrifice...but I guess you never know until the time comes to do it...a real hero.