A Love Greater Than Life Itself

The average age of the American servicemen who fought to liberate Europe from Fascism and the Pacific from Japanese Imperialism was 19.

Nineteen.

Think about what you were doing at 19. For me, the year was 1967, and I was still enjoying the benefits of a college deferment. It would be two more years before I would begin my four years of military service, and as a member of the U.S. Air Force I was never in any of the real danger usually associated with service during the Vietnam War.

Most of us can only imagine the mature decisions forced upon those teenage members of that Greatest Generation, as we have come to call them. Yet somehow military servicemen of every generation provide us with examples of heroism that cannot be found in any other walk of life, and today's generation of young Americans is no exception.

Ross Andrew McGinnis, of Knox, Pa., was born on June 14, 1987, to Tom and Romayne McGinnis. Recognizing he was not interested in attending college, Ross enlisted in the U.S. Army's Delayed Entry Program on his 17th birthday, June 14, 2004. He finished high school, graduating in 2005, and then entered basic training.

He was 19 when he died a hero's death in Iraq on December 4, 2006.

He and his Army buddies had often speculated what each of them might do if faced with a split-second, life-or-death decision. McGinnis said he didn't know what he might do. Now the whole world knows.

When McGinnis saw an enemy grenade land in his humvee, he could have jumped from the vehicle. He had enough time, and his Army training told him to do just that. Yet somehow the lives of the other four soldiers in that vehicle were more important to him, and McGinnis threw himself on top of the grenade, pressing his back against it and absorbing the impact of the blast. He was killed instantly, of course, but he had saved the lives of the others: Sgt. 1st Class Cedric Thomas, Staff Sgt. Ian Newland, Sgt. Lyle Buehler and Specialist Sean Lawson.

For the rest of their lives, these four men will remember their teenage buddy, mature beyond his years, who in a split second decided that he was willing to sacrifice his life in order to give them a chance to go home, marry, have children, raise families, have careers, see their grandchildren running in the yard and enjoy all the freedoms only America can provide. One of them has since said that he will always feel guilty for the life Ross gave him.

For his action, 19-year-old Private First Class Ross Andrew McGinnis was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest honor the United States of America can bestow upon a military member.

President Bush, in an emotional presentation of the Medal last week at the White House, spoke of McGinnis' sacrifice:

"No one outside this man's family can know the true weight of their loss. But in words spoken long ago, we are told how to measure the kind of devotion that McGinnis showed on his last day: 'Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.'"

Indeed. Thank God for heroes like Ross McGinnis.