Carpenter jumped on a grenade in Afghanistan in 2010 to save a fellow Marine. As a result, he lost his right eye and much of his jaw had to be rebuilt. He also suffered a collapsed lung and shattered bones.
Now, Carpenter is putting his Medal of Honor to good use.
The former Marine is partnering with the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk to help promote the organization’s event in South Carolina, one of nine across the country this year, according to TheState.com.
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Tunnel to Towers was started in honor of Stephen Siller, a firefighter who gave his life on 9-11. The organization gives back to service members around the U.S.
[Carpenter] had heard about the Tunnel to Towers runs, and how funds raised by the events go to pay for specially equipped homes for catastrophically injured service members. Having one of the Tunnel to Towers events – there are nine this year – in Columbia made it the ideal charity event for Carpenter.
Carpenter isn’t just lending his name to the Tunnel to Towers event. He has participated in the planning meetings, and he expects to continue in that role while juggling his academic demands at USC. He feels it’s the least he could do to honor the severely injured friends he made in the hospital during his long recuperation.
It’s important “to get the awareness out about the people who have served and worn the cloth of our nation, the people that are raising their right hand right now at a base somewhere … and above all about those lives that were sacrificed for this nation on 9-11,” Carpenter told TheState.com.
The Columbia, S.C., event will take place on Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. To register for the event, please visit Tunnel2Towers.org.
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