Chuck Simmins
2008-05-12 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

On Dec. 4, 2006, Ross McGinnis did something few are asked to consider. He gave his life that others might live. It’s not a choice that you make over a period of months. It’s something you decide in a flash, and act — or not.

McGinnis was manning the machine gun on a Humvee while his unit was on a mission in Baghdad. A grenade was thrown from a rooftop and went into the hatch alongside him and into the vehicle.

McGinnis called out a warning, but he was the only soldier to see where the explosive had landed. He had time to jump off the Humvee, but instead dropped down into the hatch. Pressing his back against the equipment where the grenade was lodged, he absorbed the entire blast and died instantly. His fellow soldiers, four in total, escaped.

Calling the Knox, Pa.-area home, McGinnis was a member of the Keystone High School class of 2005. He enlisted in the Army after graduation while he was still 17.

McGinnis was no stranger to combat. The Middle East edition of Stars and Stripes for Nov. 30, 2006, has a picture of McGinnis on its cover. His unit had been involved in a fierce firefight on Nov. 5 and had killed 38 attackers.

His superiors were quick to recognize the special nature of McGinnis’ actions. He was awarded a posthumous Silver Star, America’s third-highest award for valor in combat, and nominated for the Medal of Honor.

Eighteen months later, McGinnis will receive his medal. Speaking anonymously, sources at the Department of Defense have confirmed this with reporters from the Army Times.

Three of the five men awarded the Medal of Honor for the war on terror were killed when they fell on a grenade to save their fellow soldiers. Jason Dunham, Michael Monsoor and McGinnis made that split-second choice to risk their lives so that others might live.

Self-sacrifice is not a character trait we are taught in school. Nor is it one that our young men and women learn in boot camp. It is a behavior we learn at home, from our loved ones. It becomes a part of us, and then, in a moment, we are called to choose whether we will stand by our beliefs or not.

McGinnis saw where that grenade had lodged. He knew he could leap from the Humvee and escape. He also could see that the four men with him, down below, had no chance to escape. I cannot know what he thought at that moment, only what he chose to do. He dropped down into the Humvee and pressed his back against the grenade. Four men lived that day, and one man died.

Soon the president of the United States will present the military’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, to the parents and family of Spc. Ross McGinnis. It will be covered by a few media outlets, and then the public memory of this hero will fade.

But the men he saved, his unit, the First Infantry Division, and the people of Knox, Pa., will remember McGinnis far longer. Someday, somewhere, a little boy or girl will be told the tale of Ross McGinnis by his or her father, and the child will marvel at this hero, as we all should.

Chuck Simmins publishes America’s North Shore Journal, which can be found on the Web at northshorejournal.org.