Kyle Carpenter

On 19 June 2014, Carpenter received the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the White House. He is the eighth living recipient to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Afghanistan.

Carpenter's jaw and right arm were shattered, and he lost his right eye and most of his teeth; he has undergone dozens of surgeries. In July 2013, he was medically retired as a Corporal.

Carpenter completed his initial training at the Camp Geiger School of Infantry, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. In July 2010, as a Private First Class, he was assigned to Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, Regimental Combat Team One, 1st Marine Division (Forward), 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, where he served as a Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) gunner beginning September 2009.

On 21 November 2010, Carpenter and another Marine were manning a rooftop security post during defense of the village of Marjah, Helmand Province from a Taliban attack. According to his Medal of Honor citation,

William Kyle Carpenter (born 17 October 1989) is a medically retired United States Marine who received the United States' highest military honor, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2010. Carpenter is the youngest living Medal of Honor recipient.

Carpenter was born in Jackson, Mississippi on 17 October 1989, and raised in Flowood by his parents James and Robin. He is a graduate of W.W. King Academy in Batesburg, SC. He enlisted in the Marine Corps' delayed entry program at age 19 in February 2009, and completed Recruit Training in July 2009 at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina. After his July 2013 medical retirement, Carpenter enrolled at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, and received a degree in international studies in 2017. He is a 2013 initiate of the Chi-Omega chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity at the University of South Carolina.