The true story folks Marine Corporal Jason Dunham’s brave act that saved fellow Marines and earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Corporal Dunham was in patrol close to the Syrian border, in April 14, 2004, whenever a black-clad Iraqi leaped out of an automobile and grabbed him around his neck. Fighting with each other hand-to-hand in the dirt, Dunham noticed his attacker drop a grenade and made the instantaneous decision to place his very own helmet within the explosive in the wish of made up of the blast and safeguarding about The Gift of Valor: A War Story his males. When the smoke cleared, Dunham’s helmet was in shreds, and the corporal lay face down in his very own bloodstream. The Marines beside him had been significantly wounded. Dunham was eventually nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor, the country’ s highest prize for military valor.

Phillips’s minute-by-minute chronicle of the chaotic fighting that raged throughout the region and culminated in Dunham’s injury provides a grunt’s-eye view of battle as it’s being fought today-fear, dilemma, bravery, and struggling arranged against a brotherhood forged in fight. His account of Dunham’s eight-day trip house and of his parents’ heartrending reunion with their child powerfully illustrates the chilly brutality of war and the delicate humanity of these who battle it. Dunham leaves an indelible tag upon all who know his story, through the doctors and nurses who deal with him, to the readers of the initial Wall Street Journal content that told of his singular work of valor.