ladies and gentlemen our first guest
thank you Felicia
our first guest is the only only the second living Marine since Vietnam to receive the
medal of honor our nation's highest award for Valor ladies and Gentlemen please welcome
Corporal Kyle Carpenter [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you
well it's a great pleasure to have you with us thank you so much uh so glad to be here
I will I will just say and I hope I hope I don't anger others but this uniform the Marine
dress uniform the best there is my friend I couldn't agree more
how you doing excellent I told the people before the show I was watching uh the presentation
when you were in the Oval Office not the Oval Office and another room where they make the
presentation and and I thought the uh well I don't know what is the room you were there
East Wing they're in the East wing and um I thought the the president's remarks before
they give you the award uh were the uh lovely uh absolutely uh perfect and and uh then later
I saw you talking to a gentleman who had won a medal of honor uh or received I'm not it's
not a contest he received a medal of honor and he said some things to you that I that
really made an impression on me about who receives the Medal of Honor and what that
symbolizes do you remember what I'm talking about and he said that it's not just for you
this medal is for everyone who puts on the uniform for the United States
you know um I absolutely feel that way uh I think we all do um you know this metal is
more than uh it's just more it's more than a metal the ideas uh the history it just it
represents so much not only does it represent those that have sacrificed those that have
not come back but are are rich military history and just everything we've uh come to to become
such a great nation and up to this point and and adds to you and everyone who receives
the Medal of Honor a great pressure to represent that throughout your life so it's a wonderful
responsibility to have yes sir um how are you doing physically you okay you look great
thank you yeah uh no I'm doing great uh in the gym every day I'm a student at University
of South Carolina what are you studying uh going into my sophomore year and I think I'm
going to declare psychology with everything I've been through and I took a class this
past year which is my freshman year I really enjoyed it it really interests me so good
and and were you uh in class in school there when you received a call who calls you to
announce that you are the new recipient well uh about a week ahead of time I got the exact
day and time that the president would call me so I got out of class I drove home about
30 minutes
my parents checked my brothers out of school and we are we were all there in the living
room to to share that important special moment in my life and uh we hung up and I went back
to class back to class yeah
I'm sorry I'm late professor I just got a call from the president uh I'm not saying
it was easy to focus yes now because I don't know how this works tell me did you know ahead
of time other than the the call arranging the call that this was a likelihood for you
well there definitely has to be uh some calls for Preparation purposes and um they did they
started coming a few months before started out not so official just checking on me seeing
how things were going where I was at in life and then they kind of progressed to that that
point that point yeah and uh since you've received the award what has been the reaction
from your friends in college your family and their friends and so forth I mean not just
since I received the award since the moment I was injured uh the love and support appreciation
and just the positive backing that I've had I just can't say enough about and really that
just carried over since getting the award but my community and my school and the students
and just really since being injured the letters that poured in from all over the nation is
just it's been really incredible Kyle now when we come back if you don't mind I would
like you to tell us what it was that transpired this was in Afghanistan yes sir and we'll
talk a little bit about that do you mind if I ask your AIDS 24 24. I'm three times your
age um we've we've had many of the recent recipients on the program and what I've known
is the story is always just about the same uh the Marine Corps in this case uh you're
dispatched to a really really remote part of Afghanistan it it takes you a week and
a half to get there and when you get there you look around and you will wear oh this
there's nothing here is that about what this was that's uh that's pretty accurate yeah
um you know we got there I was injured four months in the deployment that's the amount
of time I went without a shower uh sleeping on the ground all of the water and MREs which
is pre-packaged meals uh and ammo really anything we needed we had to get a supply drop by helicopter
and is it is it apparent to you when you get to this area that it is uh necessary that
strategically it needs to be held is it is it obviously I mean uh the people uh over
there that that live under uh not so much anymore because the great job we've done but
just the uh the Taliban Rule and the strong hand that they use to control the people and
the amount of Freedom that those people don't have is just really incredible right the other
thing that I've noticed that you and your fellow servicemen have in common is that there's
a constant attack sometimes it's just a fire here and there sometimes it's all day sometimes
it's at the night but you you it becomes routine whether you're used to it or not it becomes
routine very much uh and this was your case except for one or two days they start changing
the ammunition it now becomes grenades am I right about that yes sir well we had uh
spent four months at the patrol base that entire time the same spot and we got a mission
to push South where there was no Marines and it was a strong uh I guess an enemy stronghold
we got a mission to push down we knew it was going to be a bad fight we knew we were probably
going to take casualties but it was necessary to push that Marine presence out further furthermore
helping the local populations and trying to rid the uh that I guess that territory of
now when you get that order what does that do to you inside are you ready to go are you
thinking oh damn we got to go do this or are is it all training is it adrenaline what happens
when you realize okay we're moving we have an objective and we're going to go after it
well you know it's what we're over there for that's what we signed up for um you're right
it had become part of daily life uh our Squad drew the Short Straw so you know we headed
down there and uh you know shortly after moving in the first grenade attack came yeah uh tell
us where you were uh when you were injured and the circumstances about that myself a
fellow Marine best friend we were on top of a roof and we were what's called we were on
post which is I guess in terms like the lookout position to protect the Marines inside the
mud compound because really there's no roofs over there um so we're on top of the little
tiny roof that they used to sleep in and the grenade attack came I don't remember any of
the moments leading up to it helped me out here in the movies we see grenades being thrown
were these being thrown or were they being launched they were being thrown right into
the compound by uh enemy Fighters so the enemy is fairly close uh very much yeah and how
many marines are then you looking out for the welfare I would say we only went down
there with about 12 12. okay go ahead and uh so I don't the only thing I remember for
that entire day is the sound of small arms fire AK-47 their primary choice of weapon
that morning which is kind of like our alarm clock on a regular basis and then the only
thing I remember after that is physically how my body felt after I was hit by the grenade
you're hit when you're up on the roof you're in that position with two other Marines just
one just one other Marine okay so okay so you know something has happened to your body
and your perception is obviously very strange at that moment it was I was confused because
the last thing I remembered I was on top of a roof and I didn't know if I was had been
patrolling a stepped on IED and that's just the last thing I could remember after uh when
I got hit my vision was almost like if a TV didn't have cable and it was just white and
gray static my ears were ringing very loud I couldn't hear anything because my ruptured
eardrums the next thing I felt was warm water I felt like warm water was being poured all
over me from the blood loss if you're 22 years old when this happens 21 21 years yes sir
and the the reason you suffered these massive injuries is because what did you do you put
yourself between your buddy and the grenade you fell on the grenade what was the actual
action on your part from eyewitness accounts and forensic evidence and a post-blast analysis
I showed it and covered the grenade for my fellow Marine
thank you
is this is fascinating because this is nearly a textbook a case of combat is this because
of Kyle Carpenter or is this because of Kyle Carpenter the Marine well you know for the
second we step on the other Footprints at boot camp it's instilled to us that there's
a bigger purpose that the uniform we wear has a rich history and Legacy of Marines that
have been heroic before us to take care of our Junior Marines and that when we get in
those bad parts of the world that nobody wants to go to the Marines to the are right and
left is all we have so I would like to say it was me I like to think it was a little
bit me but uh absolutely the Marine Corps and our history and just everything we stand
for makes us want to to be courageous and do those things well God bless you
I'm going to now uh if it's all right with you I'm going to run down the list of injuries
you incurred is that okay yes you're comfortable with that I'm not hiding from anybody yeah
uh okay uh countless shattered bones throughout the body countless more than a dozen something
like that 30 in this arm 30 in one arm I'm an overachiever
shrapnel in both legs shrapnel in both legs carotid artery and neck punctured punctured
ladies and gentlemen both eardrums ruptured lost most of his teeth arm broken in more
than 30 places collapse right lung uh lost most of your jaw is that is that true uh yes
sir lost most of your jaw well the almost three years I spent in the hospital much of
that time and most of my around 40 surgeries was uh facial pretty much everything from
the eyes down is uh plates and reconstructive uh surgeries and fun stuff like that you look
wonderful thank you thank you
and that's uh you know I I would like to take this opportunity to absolutely credit uh Walter
Reed in the military medicine and the staff there who just do a phenomenal job
lost division in his right eye there was brain surgery to remove shrapnel and he had a fractured
skull and now like this other stuff is not enough you flatlined three times and in fact
at the scene they thought you were dead didn't they yes sir well when I arrived at Camp Bastion
which was the first combat trauma Hospital out of four that I went through I was labeled
pea which I guess is politically correct way it stands for patient expired on arrival but
I was not like what was your first moment of cognition after this trauma how how long
after the trauma and what was it about five weeks later I woke up and uh the first thing
I saw was my mom had a decorated my room to uh fit the Christmas holiday and I saw a stocking
for every single one of my family members hung on my Hospital wall in front of my bed
[Applause] I I don't know what to say I I wish you nothing but the best in life thank
you so much thank you for your sacrifice and as a parent I hope to God my son does not
ever have to go through what you have gone through but in some way I hope he is able
to manifest the same courage thank you so much it's a great honor to meet you thank
you thank you purple Kyle Carpenter ladies and gentlemen
we're a Medal of Honor recipient we'll be right back with Mark Ruffalo [Music] [Applause]
[Music] [Applause]