All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And welcome to Veterans Radio.
I am Jim Fossone with veteransradio.net.
We are recording today from the Legal Help for Veterans Studio in Northville, Michigan.
Legal Help for Veterans is a Veterans Disability Law Firm.
You can reach us at 800-693-4800.
We want to welcome to Veterans Radio today Kyle Carpenter, a Marine who as a result of
his actions in November of 2010 ultimately became the recipient of the Medal of Honor.
Kyle, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Thank you so much, sir.
I appreciate you having me and it's always an honor and a privilege to address veterans
and those who support veterans.
So thank you again.
Well Lance Corporal, we want to talk a little bit about your upbringing before we get to
your action in Afghanistan because you're a good old Southern boy.
Tell us where you grew up and how you grew up.
So I was born in Mississippi and spent a few years there.
My dad is in business and sales and as that goes kind of working up the ladder and in
the different positions.
I spent some time in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, but my family and I ended up in South Carolina
going on 13 years ago now, which we call home and we have a really great community here
and love it.
But yes, my roots are kind of everywhere, but I have a soft spot for Mississippi as well.
Well I want to frame this a little bit because I think your upbringing for those first 20
years or so before you joined the Marine Corps really is the foundation in which you got
yourself through that eventful day, but more importantly through the surgeries and things
that followed.
You had the typical young kid in the South upbringing.
You played football, it was a passion, team sports, you had a couple of twin brothers
who were sort of looking up to you.
You grew up thinking you were Superman when you were a little kid.
I mean give us a little bit of that flavor.
Yeah, so you're right.
I mean you could say typical and with that said, I very much understand that many people
and many of my fellow veterans and just everyone does not get two loving, amazing parents and
don't have that tremendous upbringing.
So I am very thankful for that and like you already touched on, I very much believe and
know that that foundation gave me the tools that I was able to build on and employ through
later parts of my life.
But my parents are amazing.
They have been there since the moment I was born and they've been there since the moment
that in a way I was kind of reborn when I woke up five weeks after getting injured.
They were there the moment I woke up in the hospital and they haven't left my side since.
But growing up and just being taught simple yet profound lessons, take responsibility
for your actions.
I saw my mom day in and day out, address books and cards and anything you can send to people
all over our house and whether it was something small or something big, my mom would write
thank you notes herself to everyone.
If we got anything, any sort of gift, any holidays myself and my brothers would be sitting down
at the kitchen table and writing thank you notes as well just to say thank you and show
people appreciation.
And just little things like that that I've always carried with me and from thinking the
janitor at school to my teachers to the administration to all the people that had a small part in
helping me grow and learn and make it through life.
Well, I think it's important that everybody kind of reflect on their own upbringing and
see maybe how they're raising their own kids or their nieces or nephews because it is that
foundational development that's going to get you through the other things that come along
in life.
And we're talking to Kyle Carpenter who with co-author Don Yeager has written a book that's
coming out now.
You are worth it.
Building a life worth fighting for.
It's the story of Kyle's life and leading up to and through his being the recipient of
the Medal of Honor.
This is a William Morrill imprint book, Harper and Collins Publishers.
So we want to make sure we point that out.
And Kyle, one of the things that was kind of typical you were the kid who got out of
high school and said, college or military service.
And you elected to go off to the Marines in about, was it 2009?
That is correct.
Yes, sir.
March of 2009, I went to boot camp at Parris Island.
What prompted you to head towards the military service?
I wanted to do something bigger than myself and regret and unfilled potential is I would
say besides hand grenades now, my only two fears in life.
And I just wanted to do something that was bigger than any one individual.
And I wanted to do it and not have the fear of waking up one day when I had missed my
opportunity and have regret about not joining and not committing myself and now my body
and my life to something greater than myself or any one person or individual.
Well the book goes through all the training that you and the unit does to get through
boot camp and trained up and ultimately you find yourself in Afghanistan.
And since you brought up grenades, we'll move to November 21st of 2010.
Tell us about that fateful day.
So roughly a day and a half to two days before on November 19th, myself and the rest of my
squad moved to a village and a location south of the small patrol base that we had been
living and operating out of for the first four months so far of our deployment.
Looking ahead, we were over the halfway point and for anyone not completely familiar for
how things work on combat zones or when other units are coming to relieve you, you know,
before those next units come in and you go home, what you want to do is expand your presence
from how you found it and took it over from the unit that you relieve.
So you know, we went into Marjah, we relieved 36, another Marine Corps infantry unit and
nearing that next rep we call it, we wanted to push out and expand our presence and that
helps not only continue to push the enemy further out, but also with pushing the enemy
further out, making things safer and more comfortable for the locals.
Then once you know the threats are gone, people start coming out more, you know, they want
to take advantage and hopefully one day be able to send their children to school and
have, you know, paved roads and running water.
So just pushing out that presence more to create more and more stability.
And so we had pushed down to a village south of our position and, you know, within the
hour, very soon after we took over that compound, the first grenade attack came.
And for the next 24 to 36 hours, we were attacked constantly by AK-47, small-arm fire, snipers
and multiple attacks with hand grenades.
And you know, when all was kind of said and done and it was time a few days later for
my squad after myself and many of my fellow Marines were injured to go back to the base
where we had initially started out at, we were almost at 50% casualties and we had barely
left our four walls of safety of the base that we were currently occupying.
But the day I was injured, November 21, 2010, myself and a fellow Marine, one of the most
amazing and greatest Marines that I have ever had the pleasure of serving with and someone
I'm thankful to call a best friend, Nick Euphrasio.
We are on top of a roof together on post and post is essentially, for those not familiar
with military terminology, it's a lookout position.
And we're on this roof looking out for any, you know, more hand grenade attacks, any attacks
that might injure the Marines who aren't vigilant and on watch and either cleaning their weapons,
eating, resting inside the compound.
We were at the end of our four hour shift, which was the afternoon of November 21st.
And unfortunately, I don't remember anything in the moments leading up to that daylight
grenade attack.
The only thing I remember from the entire day before is that morning, rolling out of
my sleeping bag around 745 or 8am.
We were getting attacked.
It was a daybreak attack with AK-47s.
And it was, you know, that had kind of become our alarm clock over there.
So I remember unzipping my sleeping bag and rolling out and kind of thinking, well, you
know, here we go another day in Afghanistan.
Fast forward to that afternoon.
And really the only thing I remember from the day and the attack is after the grenade
exploded.
I remember physically how I felt at first.
I was extremely disoriented and I was reeling from the blast.
I just felt like I got really hit hard in the face.
And I was trying to put the pieces together.
I was thinking, you know, okay, I was in Afghanistan.
The last thing I remember, I was on a roof, but what could have possibly injured me this
bad on a roof?
Maybe I got off and went on patrol and I stepped on IED and maybe this is just the last thing
I can remember.
And those thoughts and me trying to put those pieces together was interrupted by the feeling
of what I was thinking in the moment at the time to be warm water.
And just shows you how much Marines love each other and how much we pick on each other because
I was thinking, man, in this banged up, like terrible shape and state that I'm in, my buddies
are still messing with me.
But you know, the pieces unfortunately and quickly fell into place and gave me this surreal
realization that what I was feeling was not warm water and it was blood and I was bleeding
out very quickly.
So let me set this Kyle because you've acknowledged that, you know, when it happened, you don't
have a lot of memory of it, but it's in the book.
It's been pieced together by your comrades and the other Lance Corporal who was up on
the roof on post with you.
So there was a grenade thrown up on the roof and instinctually you covered the grenade
to protect your body.
And your body took the brunt of this grenade explosion, which blew through a lot of you
and through the roof.
And then there was this amazing effort by your squad and the medics and everybody else
to save your life because as you say, you're feeling all this quote unquote water.
It really is, is you're bleeding out, but they're able to apply tourniquets and save
you in the moment and get you on to greater medical care.
Do you remember the flights to the various steps along the way to get ultimately to the
medical hospital?
No, sir, I do not.
And you're absolutely right.
I mean the incredible Navy Corbin and my fellow Marines that were with me, you know, I still
don't know what to say to people that save your life nine years later now, but I am forever
grateful and indebted to them.
But no, sir, to answer your question, you know, once I realized that I was bleeding
out, I thought about my family very quickly, how devastated they were going to be that
I did not make it home.
And I said a quick prayer for forgiveness and for anything that I had done wrong.
You know, my life.
And once I went unconscious in that moment, I did not wake up again for almost five weeks.
And I did.
And I did wake up.
It was at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center right outside of Washington, DC, in
Bethesda, Maryland.
And veteran radio listeners were talking to Marine Kyle Carpenter, who was a Lance Corporal
in Afghanistan.
His phrase is he cuttle the grenade, which I thought was a great turn of phrase, which
I don't recommend what she does not recommend.
And the book you are worth it, which is a great saying.
I hope we have time to talk about a little bit really walks us through from piecing the
story together of the miraculous saving of his life right after this instance where he
cuttles the grenade.
And you've got to pick it up and read it because it's going to not only make you feel that
man, this carpenter guy is a, you know, he is Superman, but you're going to see that
the medics and the other Marines who jump into action here.
Boy, it's really inspiring and great to know that these great Americans are out there.
But in your instance, it, you know, you're in a coma.
You don't wake up.
It's weeks and weeks and weeks before you even get to some sort of semblance of a prognosis
of being able to move forward.
And I think I read somewhere you had like 24 different surgeries.
That might be around the way we lost me and mom lost count, but I think I got up to, you
know, 40 or so.
You know, many of those, they would put me to sleep and do multiple life saving operations
and limb saving surgeries during that time.
But overall, you know, it took about 40 surgeries in three years to put Humpty Dumpty back together
again.
Well, they've did, they've done a great job with you.
And I want to talk a little bit about the support network that allowed this for you
to get through this.
The amount of pain, emotional, physical hallucinations through this recovery process, again detailed
in the book, making it definitely worth reading.
But what I don't want to concentrate on that, I want to concentrate on mom, dad and Sadie.
Talk to us, talk to us about those three.
Wow.
Where to start?
Just, you know, to wake up in the physical state that I was in and to mentally have left
off on a hot dusty rooftop in Afghanistan.
And now there is inches of snow building outside of my window pane in a military hospital over
7,000 miles away.
You know, I was in bad shape any way you cut it, and I was very disoriented.
I didn't, I wasn't, you know, as a young Lance Corporal, first combat deployment, I wasn't
versed or an expert in any way as military, as the military medicine.
So to see doctors who I've always seen in white, white lab coats, you know, wearing camouflage
now, it was just so bizarre and I was so disoriented.
The only thing that wasn't injured on me was my left ankle.
And you know, from the second I woke up, the first thing I saw was Christmas stockings.
My mom had decorated my room for the holidays.
My family was there, my two brothers.
And just, you know, from that moment on, just to have, whether it's beside your hospital
bed or beside you in life, or beside you while you're receiving the melavon in the White
House, you know, at the foundational level, just to have someone beside you that says,
hey, I support you and I love you and I'm here for you.
No, you know, veteran or not, military or not, injured or not, just as a person and
as a human being to have people and my family, yes, the amazing staff at Walter Reed, you
know, just from the moment I woke up to have the love and support I did, it was, you know,
hard for me almost to not stay positive.
You know, I woke up and I was alive.
You know, incredible, amazing step number one.
I just could not believe it because I truly thought when I felt myself bleeding out that
that was it.
And then I wake up to this bonus round.
Yes, I'm in, I've been fighting for my life.
It was so hard and terrible to breathe through a tube for months and it took me a long, hard
road to recovery to get back on my feet.
But at the foundation of it all, to just be loved and supported and have a helping hand
around my shoulder, you know, was enough to help me be able to continue to knock out the
baby steps and, you know, strive to reach that full potential in whatever step of recovery
I was in.
Now, Kyle, you've got to talk about Sadie.
I gave it a teaser here.
You've got to bring her back in.
Sadie is our ferocious guard dog, white and fluffy and about nine and a half pounds.
But you got to say, no, I want my veteran radio listeners to picture this.
Here's this bad ass Lance Corporal.
The guy jumps on a grenade and one of the things that really helps you get through some
down times is this fluffy white dog Sadie.
Well, thankfully, I know there's a lot of dog lovers out there, so I don't feel like
I'm being judged.
But, you know, Sadie, she was like any just great dog.
She, because after I spent my initial kind of life saving inpatient three months at Walter
Reed, you know, at the time, the casualty rate coming in was astronomical.
So at one point there were hospital beds in the hallways at Walter Reed.
So when it came time for me to, you know, still need to be taken care of medically.
But also I didn't have to stay inpatient every second of every day.
I was allowed by the military and the staff at Walter Reed to go home and recover until
that following September.
And I got done with Walter Reed at the end of, end of January, but I got to go home for
about seven months and recover.
And all I could do was lay on the couch and, you know, I had the tough job of eating mom's
amazing homemade Southern cooked food all the time.
But, you know, I just laid on the couch and she likes her personal space and doesn't love
to be bothered all the time if she's in nap mode.
But you know, she, I think she knew and she sat there with me every second of every day
for those seven months and helped me get better.
And, you know, she's the best.
Well, those of us who are dog lovers and most the United States really understand the
therapeutic value of, and the, that you get from having your own dog right there with
you.
But I want to talk about two other things as we continue to move along here.
You went through all of those things that we would expect somebody who lost an eye and
had their arm, you know, messed up and their legs messed up.
You really felt at one point like, hey, I'm damaged goods.
Who's going to love me?
You were emotionally, your emotions, you felt a lot of hopelessness and doubt.
How did, how did you face that and work through that?
Yeah, you know, that's a great question.
And I'm glad you brought that up because really that out of everything I talk about
in the book, this one extremely low moment was not only a defining moment in my recovery,
but my life.
And it was very shortly after I had left the hospital in the February.
So this was spring 2011.
And you know, I think up until that point through all of the pain, the time that Walter
Reed just surgeries, I think that, you know, I was strong and I was as good as I was and
I pushed as hard as I did because, you know, aside from all of my physical stuff and my
injuries, it was equally as much, if not more, an emotional and mental burden on me, knowing
that my family and my parents who, you know, birth me and love me and, you know, I knew
as a parent, I couldn't even imagine, but I knew how just heart wrenching it had to
be for them.
So I tried not to show anything, but positivity, you know, my dad says he'd never believed
me, but I always would say I wasn't in pain because I didn't want to hurt them anymore.
But I was at home in the spring of 11 and I was, it was about 10 o'clock at night.
It was almost very movie like setting.
The lights were kind of dim.
You know, mom was the only one still up and I was in the kitchen by myself and I hadn't
had any of my nerve surgeries on my arms.
You know, I could barely operate enough or well enough to make a bowl of cereal.
I mean, a huge task, one that I couldn't have even done a month before that.
So I finally get this bowl of cereal made and I try to start eating it.
And I can barely hold the spoon, even that's a challenge up until a couple weeks before
this point, my mom was still brushing my teeth, putting on my underwear, tying my shoes.
And I'm sitting here trying to eat this bowl of cereal and the grenade, my doctors, I can't
even express how amazing they rebuilt and put my face and my jaw back together.
But the grenade blew most of my teeth out on the bottom and some on the top and really
just completely destroyed my entire lower jaw and part of my upper jaw.
Pretty much everything from my eye sockets down.
And so I'm sitting here trying to eat this bowl of cereal with no teeth and you know,
milk, I can't feel my chin because my nerves are severed and I noticed milk is all over
my face, dribbling off my chin and something inside me completely broke.
And I started crying harder and harder until I was borderline point of hysterically crying
and mom rushes in and you know, her first thought is of course, you know, I'm in pain,
what's wrong?
And I just looked at her and I just said, you know, who's ever going to love me again?
And yes, it was a low moment and it was so hard and at the time I regretted saying it
because I could see that I absolutely tore her in two.
But and you know, my book is essentially lessons that over time and reflection and personal
growth, I realized a life lesson that I wanted to convey to people.
And now looking back, I'm so thankful for that moment, that low terrible moment at the
kitchen counter because I realized as upset and down and out as I was that I could either
get up, take one small step and put one foot in front of the other and continue to push
through not only my recovery, but the rest of my life and make the best with the cards
that I have been dealt or the only other option that I had and that we have in life is when
you did not down, you know, I could have sat at that kitchen counter for the rest of my
life.
I mean, that was my only now I realized that and I'm thankful I made the choice I did.
And I didn't really know exactly what I was doing at the time.
All I knew was that, you know, I could have got up and made the best of it and push forward
or I would have stayed right there down and out crying, you know, trying to eat that bowl
of cereal for the rest of my life.
And so really the turning point in my recovery and really where I've decided that I was always
going to move forward and never look back and what happened happened is right there sitting
at that kitchen counter.
And it's really those sorts of life lessons that we try to bring here on Veterans Radio
to our listeners who might be having their own struggles.
And we're talking to Kyle Carpenter, who's a Medal of Honor recipient, Marine Lance
Corporal who cuttle the grenade and lived to tell about it, which is amazing.
That's why he refers to his life now as part of the bonus round and his book, You Are Worth
It, Building a Life Worth Fighting For is so extraordinary.
Kyle, I want to talk to you about some of the other life lessons you've learned that
maybe you can pass along you're 30 years old, but you've lived through a lot at this point.
You say don't hide the scars.
Can you talk to us a little bit about that?
So don't hide your scars, Captain, the book.
You know, at one point in my recovery, I tried scar revision therapy.
And the doctors after I got out of surgery, they kind of said, hey, we have this laser
treatment.
We can smooth a lot of these scars out on your face.
And I was there for three years.
It was there available.
So I just kind of said, you know, why not?
I'll try it.
And I came out of that and my face was swollen.
I mean, it literally looked like I just stuck my head in a beehive.
And so I got back to my room and I was looking at myself in the mirror and I kind of had a
like, what am I doing type moment?
And I asked myself that for two reasons.
I'm trying to smooth out the scars on my face, would that be possible?
Yeah, with a certain number of treatments, probably might make me look a little prettier.
It'd be hard, but it might make me look a little prettier.
But you know, then you go, you know, down and you get to a massive scar on my neck that
goes from my ear all the way to the other side of my neck, my trach scar.
And then we don't have enough time the rest of the day to talk about the scars from neck
down.
But, you know, it's kind of how I refer to it in the book, it would be, you know, smoothing
the scars out on my face.
It would be trying to buffer out a dent in a car that's been totaled.
And so, you know, kind of evolving from that thought process, you know, I speak when I
go and publicly or motivationally speak to people.
You know, and I wrote this book and I tell people to own their scars.
You know, who am I if I'm sitting here trying to get scar revision therapy and trying to
get rid of the things that I'm telling people to be proud of and to own.
And through that thought process, you know, I kind of solidified in my thought process
that scars are, you know, really beautiful and, you know, people might see them as physically
different or physically, you know, ugly, but scars show, you know, our physical representation
that you have not only lived, but you've been knocked down or you've been, you know, injured
or you've bled or you've had these hard times and scars can be absolutely just as much
mental and emotional as physical.
Now, those are much tougher, obviously, because people can't see those a lot of the times
and people might not want to talk about them.
But as far as my physical scars and people's physical scars, you know, be proud of those.
They show that you've lived the life and you've pushed through whatever gave you those scars.
And now, yeah, you might have a scar, but you have knowledge and experience and more
resilience and perseverance when the next challenge or, you know, the next life obstacle
comes your way.
And above that, you know, not only for yourself, but you can connect with other people who
have struggled and, you know, struggle is was kind of my light bulb term and moment,
you know, when I realized I could write this book and focus it on struggle because I didn't
want to write another book about just strictly a military or combat focus.
I wanted something that transcended all boundaries and that, you know, anyone could pick up and
not only understand and process, but also take lessons from.
And when I realized that the angle I could take is struggle because everyone and every
person on this planet, you know, that's that common thread through us all.
Mental physical or emotional scars, you know, own them and be thankful for them because
you're still living and you're still breathing and you're better and stronger, you know, than
you were before.
That's what I think one of the real values of this book is you are worth it by Kyle Carpenter.
And I said to Kyle early on before we got on here that I read this book and immediately
wanted to talk to him, but they said, no, no, the book's not coming out yet until October
of 2019.
You can't talk to him yet.
And it's because it transcends.
This isn't just a typical military war story book or even a recovery from a brutal medical
condition.
It's really got a lot of life lessons in it that apply to anybody in their circumstances
if they read it and have an open mind in that regard.
So I think you've accomplished your mission, Kyle, in writing about the struggle and making
it available to others who may have different types of struggles.
But we all have struggles and we all have scars.
Some are more prominent, some of them are earned while saving somebody else's life,
but we've all got to work through our struggles, don't we?
Absolutely, absolutely.
And just like that moment at the kitchen counter, you know, it's okay to not have a plan or
not know what the next step is or where you're going, you know, but you need to realize and
if you need to take time to heal, whether it's a month or a year, that's okay.
And that's completely fine and you're on your own time for your own healing purposes.
But one day, you know, as tough as a pill as it is to swallow, you're going to have
to realize your only two options are to stay exactly where you are or take that one small
baby step and put one foot in front of the other.
And you know, I think my favorite line from the book is, you know, even the smallest of
steps eventually completes the grandest of journeys.
And that's something that, you know, was a hard lesson I had to learn over many years
and many dark nights in the hospital, you know, but it is true.
So you don't have to have a plan, you just have to just make that step.
Let me turn now if we can as we come to the close and talk a little bit about the absolutely
unique honor of being a middle of honor recipient.
No one ever seeks to be a middle of honor recipient.
Nobody ever expects to be such.
And I don't think most people can understand the level of scrutiny that goes into receiving
this highest honor that the military awards, the president awards.
Tell us a little bit about the lead up to it, the ceremony, and then I've got some questions
for you after that.
So, early on when I was still during my three initial months of inpatient care, a fellow
Marine had called me and kind of unofficially give me a heads up, you know, hey, we all saw
what you did.
The evidence is there.
And essentially we believe, at least just my platoon and my fellow Marines on the ground
that, you know, they believe that I deserved it.
Well, you know, that's obviously just even in a healthy, not injured state, that is a
very difficult and big idea to even comprehend.
So probably my brain as a defense mechanism, I kind of forgot about it.
I told him, thank you, I appreciate it.
I was very honored that my fellow Marines and buddies thought that much of me.
But you know, we hung up and that was really it.
And I focused on my recovery and I pushed forward.
I didn't think another thing about it.
And with anyone familiar with military awards process, you know, not in a negative way and
not bashing anyone, but I just didn't think there was any possible chance that in a million
years this could happen.
So went on to recover.
Well, I was years into my recovery still at Walter Reed and a Marine called me and told
me essentially that they were officially gearing up and moving forward with a potential Medal
of Honor investigation and they wanted to talk to me about what I remembered and my
actions that day on the roof.
I apologized and told them, unfortunately, I couldn't contribute because I did not remember.
And they thanked me for, you know, just being a Marine and who I was.
And they told me that no matter how it panned out that to nine, my unit was proud of me.
And that was enough for me.
So we hung up the phone and two years later, I had done my three years at Walter Reed.
I had since left the hospital and I was in the middle of my sophomore year at the University
of South Carolina.
And the Pentagon and Marines from the Pentagon started casually calling me and checking up
on me and seeing how I was doing and kind of where I was at in life.
The calls got more frequent until we got to a point early in 2014, maybe very late 2013.
You know, talks really started to become official.
And then after six months of, you know, kind of preparation and PR training and all of
these things, I finally got word that of the day and the exact minute that President Obama
would call me.
So I left class and I drove the 30 minutes home to my house outside of Lexington, South
Carolina.
And we had checked my two brothers out from school because they were still in high school
at the time.
And they wanted them to be there for that special moment.
And so my family, we were all sitting in the living room.
My mom had already yelled at me because I walked into the house where I think 7% on
my cell phone battery.
She's like the president of the United States is about to call you in your phones on 7%.
But hey, you know, I'm a college student.
This is so mom, right?
Yeah.
And she yelled at me and got on to me for having yucky shoes on.
But it was over the phone.
So you know, I wasn't too worried about it.
But yeah, definitely mom moves.
But I got plugged in.
I was charging.
We were all good.
And the call came through and it was very, very surreal to talking to the president of
the United States on the phone and him asking me about life and how things were going.
And then he proceeded to tell me that based upon the recommendation from the secretary
of the Navy and the secretary of defense, he has approved for me to be awarded the Medal
of Honor.
He said, you see me in DC and I wrapped up the call and went back to class.
It is an amazing experience, I'm sure.
And I've talked to a number of Medal of Honor recipients who've received that call.
Some of them decades and decades, you know, as many as 50 years later that they've received
this call.
So for you to receive it as young as you were is kind of a surreal moment.
But as we wrap up, maybe my final question to you, because I think we could talk all
afternoon.
Let me ask you the final question here, which I've asked other Medal of Honor recipients.
Talk to us about the responsibility you feel as a Medal of Honor recipient.
Well, probably, you know, the best note to end on.
So I appreciate you leaving a little time for this.
It is a beautiful burden.
And you know, first and foremost, I'll say that I'm so honored and humbled and appreciative
that my country, my government, you know, our military and Marine Corps recognized me
and my story, you know, therefore recognizing my unit, my fellow Marines and what we went
through as a band of brothers.
You know, but to go deeper and I'm so glad I can relay this because, you know, with
the Medal of Honor, everyone sees the pictures and the interviews and David Letterman and
ESPN.
And, you know, I got to go to the Super Bowl as a recipient and all of these amazing things.
And it is incredible.
And, you know, I'm a fun, loving life, tackling it full speed ahead, love football, sports,
like, of course, I am so enjoying these amazing opportunities.
But to really think about the Medal, you know, the Medal represents my story, my injury,
my recovery.
Yes.
But then it also represents those long, hard nights and the darkness in my hospital room
that my parents sat through and my brother sat through.
You know, then it represents my fellow Marines that were there on the ground with me that
got my blood on their hands, keeping me alive and doing everything in their power to get
me back home to my family.
You know, and then it represents the Marines that were with us that at 19, 20 years old
gave their last full measure of devotion for us and for our country that some people may
never hear their story.
And then you go beyond that and it represents, you know, all of the service members and women
from, you know, our war on terror generation.
But to go further, you know, it represents previous generations, you know, those that,
you know, died in a random field that most Americans will not only know, never know where
it is, but can't pronounce in lush fields throughout Vietnam, you know, those Marines
that froze to death, you know, and died fighting for the liberties of people, you know, throughout
Korea and the Marines and the troops that charged the beaches during World War II.
And they were told, you know, if you're lucky, you're going to make it to the beachhead.
And even if you make it to the beachhead, you're going to have probably 20 seconds to
live and still did it knowing that there was a bigger and greater cause than themselves
or any one individual and that the Marines that were charging those beaches to the right
and left of them, you know, their lives were just as important, if not more important than
their own and all of the campaigns before that.
So not only represents all the generations, but then you think about, you know, not only
are there those that gave their life, but there are those that 30, 40, 50, 60 years later,
they're still missing in action.
We still can't tell their families and their loved ones how they gave their last breath
on earth for their country.
So to know, yes, it's amazing and I'm so honored, but at the same time to know the
weight and the history it represents is still nine, well, 2014, you know, six years later
now still almost too heavy and powerful to comprehend and, you know, outside the walls,
outside the borders of our country.
You know, the mellow honor in our military represents, you know, and is a beacon of hope
for so many around the world.
I mean, there's always big political reasons about going to war and doing this and doing
that, but, you know, people need to realize there are tens of millions of people around
the world every single day.
You know, when you get up and you hit the button on your curate, there's people that
wake up every day of every year of their life for their entire life.
They wake up and they just think, oh, wow, you know, I hope one day, one day I hope I
can have the freedom to make my own choices or one day, you know, I hope I can get a big,
you know, cold, you know, glass of ice water and fresh water that I don't have to walk
a mile down a hot, rocky, dusty road with no shoes on my feet just to draw dirty water
out of a well to bring back to my mud hut home.
You know, it's just to, you know, I hope one day that I can know what school is and I can
maybe go to a classroom and be taught something.
You know, just very simple things, but, you know, with all of that said, I'm honored as
a representative of the Medal of Honor and as a recipient, but, you know, I'm just as
honored to have had the privilege to serve in our military and to whatever capacity I
did or we did, you know, help the people of Afghanistan who, you know, struggle under
the Taliban every single day.
And, you know, like I said, who one day hope to just have fresh, clean drinking water,
sure, to go to school and not worry about, you know, being blown up or killed.
So sorry, I went a little off.
But, you know, I've seen it.
Oh, no, you've lived it.
I'm passionate about it and I'm thankful to be a Marine and I'm thankful to be an American.
Kyle Carpenter, Medal of Honor recipient, Lance Corporal, United States Marine Corps,
author of You Are Worth It, Building a Life Worth Fighting For.
And we didn't get to talk about the title, which I think is a great title.
It's a William and Morrow imprint of Harper Collins Publishing.
Kyle, thank you for spending some time with Veterans Radio today.
Absolutely, sir.
Thank you for this opportunity and to all the veterans out there.
You know, thanks for raising your right hand when not many others would.
It's an honor.
And I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.
I am Jim Fawson.
It's been a pleasure to be your host.
I'm a Veterans Disability lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans and you can reach us at
800-6934800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web.
You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio
shows by going to veteransradio.net.
And until next time, you are dismissed.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for
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Their number again, 1-800-6934800.
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