Ernest Simanek News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Before daybreak on Aug. 17, 1952, a grenade landed near 22-year-old Marine Corps Pfc. Robert Simanek. He kicked it away, but the blast injured his foot. A second grenade fell at his side. “I couldn’t move too well. So I just sort of rolled over on top of that grenade,” he later recounted.

He saved fellow Marines by falling on a live grenade. His death leaves only two surviving veterans of that war to have been honored with the medal.