President Obama on Thursday awarded the Medal of Honor to retired Marine Corps Cpl. William “Kyle” Carpenter, 24, for his conspicuous gallantry during a 2010 battle in Afghanistan in which he was seriously injured. “Anybody who has had a chance to get to know this young man knows you’re not going to get a better example of what you want in an American or a marine,” said Obama during the White House ceremony. “The Medal of Honor is presented for gallantry on the battlefield. But today, we also recognize Kyle Carpenter for his valor since in the hard fight for recovery,” said Obama. Carpenter lunged toward an enemy grenade to shield a fellow marine from the grenade blast during a firefight on Nov. 21, 2010, in Marjah, Afghanistan. Initially pronounced dead on arrival at a field hospital, he ultimately endured two-and-a-half years of recovery in a military hospital. “The enemy killed me. I came back, ran a marathon, completed a mud run, and jumped from a plane. I won’t ever quit. I am just getting started,” said Carpenter in a Marine Corps video. (Obama’s remarks and White House blog entry) (Marine Corps’ MOH webpage.)
NASA Boss: Race to Moon Has National Security Stakes
Sept. 15, 2026
NASA is pushing hard to get astronauts back to the moon by 2028—and the urgency is driven in no small part by the national security implications of doing so before China does, Administrator Jared Isaacman said Sept. 15.
