I first reported on the selfless sacrifice made by Marine Cpl Jason Dunham here. And Blackfive has more here.
Now, the day before Memorial Day, we learn that he is the first soldier who fought in Iraq to be nominated for the Medal of Honor and the first since 1993 when Randy Shugart and Gary Gordon received Medals of Honor for their actions in the Blackhawk Down incident.
Until a few weeks ago, Memorial Day meant little more than a day off from school for Justin Lambert, a 22-year-old who just finished college.The death of his best friend in Iraq has changed that.
"I don't know what I'm going to do, but it puts your life in perspective, when you think about it," he said.On a holiday honoring the nation's war dead, Lambert and other childhood friends will remember Jason Dunham as the 6-foot-1 jock who stood by them to a fault as they grew up together in Scio, population 1,900, in western New York's rural Allegany County.
A world away, the Marines in his unit are remembering a 23-year-old hero who took the brunt of a grenade explosion to protect them.
For that, they have nominated Dunham for the military's highest award, the Medal of Honor. The corporal, who served with the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines based at Camp Pendleton, is the first U.S. soldier to be nominated for the award in the Iraq war.
Dunham's friends back home are not surprised by the man that emerged in combat a world away. It was their friend doing what he had always done, looking out for others.
"I've never been in a fight in my life," said Lambert, "because he was always in front of me. He was always the first person to stick up for anybody."
On the soccer field, Kyle Young counted on Dunham to keep on top of opposing players who tried to rough him up in goal.
"He's a better man than me for serving his country alone," said Young, 22, "and then paying the ultimate price."
Dunham died eight days after the grenade blast, which occurred as he struggled with an Iraqi insurgent who had ambushed a convoy near the town of Husaybah April 14, according to published reports.
As Dunham and the Iraqi wrestled on the ground, two other Marines rushed to help, men at the scene told The Wall Street Journal. Dunham yelled a warning: "No, no, no -- watch his hand!" The Marines believe Dunham had spotted the grenade, yelled the warning and then placed his helmet and body on top of it to protect his squadmates.
"I deeply believe that given the facts and evidence presented he clearly understood the situation and attempted to block the blast of the grenade from his squad members," Lt. Col. Matthew Lopez of Chicago, Dunham's battalion commander, wrote in a May 13 letter recommending Dunham for the Medal of Honor.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer has asked President Bush to approve the recommendation.
"Corporal Dunham laid down his life by shielding members of his unit from danger by throwing himself on a live grenade, an act of unbelievable bravery and selflessness that saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines," Schumer wrote to the president. "I can imagine no clearer case of an individual soldier exhibiting the ideas that the Congressional Medal was established to honor."
The nomination makes Dunham's friends proud. But it does little to blunt the pain.
"It's great that he's being recognized," Lambert said, "but it still doesn't bring him back. It's great but it's kind of bittersweet."
"It's frustrating to know that he did that," Young said. "It's still hard to know that he's not here and not going to come home in a couple of months so we can go out and do the things we used to do."
Dunham didn't tell Lambert and Young of his decision to re-enlist in the Marines, rather than finish his commitment in July. "He knew we probably would have told him not to," Lambert said. But the friends understood Dunham's need to stay with his unit until the end.
Dunham's parents, Deb and Dan Dunham, were by their son's side when he died at a military hospital in Bethesda, Md.
Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press
