Medal of Honor winner, who jumped on grenade, ponders future in Las Vegas
Rarely do ballrooms in the MGM Grand‘s swank conference center fill to watch a 25-year-old give a speech about leadership.
Pacing restlessly across the stage Wednesday night, Kyle Carpenter seemed aware of that fact, astonished himself, somehow, at the events that have carried him from tiny Gilbert, S.C., to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center all the way to the White House.
And now a Vegas speaking gig.
"That grenade, I always lose my train of thought," he said, apologizing halfway through the speech for his inconsistent memory.
Put simply, one hot afternoon in a very rough part of Afghanistan, Carpenter dived on a grenade to save a comrade, fellow Marines later testified. Two years later, the military agreed, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor, becoming the youngest living recipient of the military‘s highest honor.
On the one hand, it was an extraordinary act of heroism. On the other, Carpenter, to this day, has no memory of the event.
The soldier he helped save, Cpl. Nicholas Eufrazio, is at his family‘s home in Plymouth, Mass., still recovering from traumatic brain injury sustained in the blast.
Carpenter does recall the recovery period.
Over two-and-a-half years in Walter Reed, Carpenter endured more than 30 surgeries to put together his shattered right arm, rebuild the cratered right half of his face and remove shrapnel from his head. He made daily goals of first walking to the bathroom by himself, then walking the halls unassisted ’ one foot in front of the other.
Later, with those same forward movements, he ran a marathon.
It‘s that message, in addition to the initial act of heroism, that resonates with MGM Grand‘s Veterans Networks Group, which invited him to speak, said Ondra Berry, who is a senior vice president with MGM and oversees the company‘s Veterans Network.
"If (Carpenter) can set small goals that turn into big goals, I can do it too," said Berry, who also serves as a brigadier general in the Nevada National Guard.
Carpenter kept a relentlessly upbeat attitude, peppering his speech with words like "thankful," "appreciation" and "honor."
His principal message was a hope that Americans won‘t take for granted the advantages that freedom brings, from driving to a grocery store without fear to turning on a faucet and having drinking water.
One thing he took advantage of was education. He‘s now a junior at the University of South Carolina.
"I feel like I‘m on bonus time," he said.
His injury and ensuing honor have made him a sort of spokesman for wounded U.S. soldiers. But he‘s more than one of 79 living Medal of Honor recipients among 3,495 who have received the award since the Civil War.
Recently, he‘s found time to swim with dolphins and take a helicopter tour of Las Vegas. His Instagram account, @chiksdigscars, is a kaleidoscope of his adventures in boating, hiking and running marathons.
After the speech, an audience member asked Carpenter what he planned to do after college. Another asked what his goals were with the platform he‘s be given. They were questions he knew were coming.
Standing on the stage in a suit, Carpenter said a book will definitely happen at some point. He wants to work in counter-terrorism, although he hasn‘t ruled out politics.
But peering into the future, being the youngest living Medal of Honor winner has its own pitfalls, he acknowledged.
"I‘m sitting here in the spotlight, and going to the White House and being treated so well by so many people," he said. "A lot of the people who paid the ultimate sacrifice are just a name on the wall and not getting any attention. So it‘s very hard, it‘s bittersweet, it‘s a double-edged sword."
Contact Knowles Adkisson at kadkisson@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5529. Find him on Twitter: @knowlesadkisson
