Photo: Mallory S. VanderSchans/U.S. Marine Corps
Corporal William “Kyle” Carpenter will be the eighth living recipient to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. He and his family will join President Obama at the White House to commemorate his example of selfless service on June 19, 2014.
Corporal Carpenter will receive the Medal of Honor for his courageous actions while serving as an Automatic Rifleman with Company F, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 1, 1st Marine Division (Forward), I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Born in Flowood, Mississippi on October 17, 1989, and graduated from W. Wyman King Academy, Batesburg, South Carolina, in 2008. Carpenter enlisted in February of 2009 in the United States Marine Corps at Recruiting Station Columbia, South Carolina, and completed his basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, later that year.
At the time of the November 21, 2010 combat engagement in Afghanistan in support of OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM, then-Lance Corporal Carpenter served as an Automatic Rifleman with Company F, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, Regimental Combat Team-1, 1st Marine Division (Forward), I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).
In July 2013, he was medically retired as a Corporal due to his wounds. Since then Carpenter has been a full time student at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
