The Patriot Post® · Profiles of Valor: CPL Jason Dunham
Jason Lee Dunham was raised in the small town of Scio in upstate New York. His father, Dan, is an Air Force Veteran, and his mother, Deb, is a school teacher. Jason had three siblings, a sister and two brothers. He was a star athlete, and after graduating from high school in 2000, he joined the Marine Corps.
Completing his recruit training, he served three years as a Security Force sentry at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia. From there, he was deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom to Al-Karābilah, where he served as a squad leader (over three fireteams of four Marines each) with 4th Platoon, Company K, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force.
At the end of his first tour, he elected to extend his enlistment to stay with his fellow Platoon Marines.
According to his biographer, Wall Street Journal writer Michael Phillips, when Jason told his friends about his plan to remain in Iraq, they asked, to put it politely, “Why?” and exclaimed, “You’re crazy for extending.” He replied, “I want to make sure everyone makes it home alive.” And he did.
Phillips wrote that among the many bantering conversations Jason had with his fellow Marines, one was about the best way to survive if a hand grenade landed in the middle of your squad: “Early this spring (2004), he and two other Marines sat in an outpost in Iraq and traded theories on surviving a hand-grenade attack. Second Lt. Brian ‘Bull’ Robinson suggested that if a Marine lay face down on the grenade and held it between his forearms, the ceramic bulletproof plate in his flak vest might be strong enough to protect his vital organs. His arms would shatter, but he might live.‘ But Dunham had another idea: 'I’ll bet a Kevlar helmet would stop it.’ Staff Sgt. John Ferguson replied, ‘No, it’ll still mess you up.’”
On April 14, 2004, responding to an ambush on his Battalion Commander’s convoy, Dunham was leading his Combined Anti-Armor Team towards the ambush location in order to provide fire support.
His squad searched a line of vehicles near the ambush, and when they discovered weapons in a Toyota Land Cruiser, the driver exited the truck. Unable to flee, he attacked the Marines. Dunham closed in to subdue him as two other Marines were approaching to assist. They heard Jason yell, “No, no, no — watch his hands!”
According to Jason’s Medal of Honor citation: “Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. Corporal Dunham immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast.”
Though he attempted to use his PASGT helmet to shield himself and others from the explosion, it did not fully contain the blast. The insurgent and the two other Marines received injuries from the grenade fragments, but Dunham was severely wounded.
He was medevacked to their base and then to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He was in a coma and had suffered severe brain injuries from which there was no chance of recovery. Marine Commandant General Michael Hagee visited Jason to personally present his Purple Heart. Eight days after the initial attack, Jason was removed from life support and died with his parents at his bedside.
President George W. Bush presented his posthumous Medal of Honor in 2007, observing, “Corporal Dunham … showed the world what it means to be a Marine.”
His MoH citation concludes: “In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.”
Jason was the first Marine to earn the Medal of Honor for service in Iraq.
Notably, in 2010, Marine LCpl Kyle Carpenter also jumped on a live grenade in Afghanistan to protect his fellow Marines.
Fortunately, Kyle survived, and after the disastrous and deadly Biden/Harris surrender and retreat from Afghanistan, he offered a brief but compelling message to his fellow OEF Veterans and all Americans.
In 2007, Jason’s mom, Deb, wrote of her son and her family’s loss:
I’ll leave it to others to debate the politics of the war in Iraq. I’m a mother, not a politician. For me, discussing my son is personal, not political.
I want to remember Jason and to offer some thoughts to other parents whose sons and daughters are in combat serving this country.
There were so many facets to Jason’s personality, you can’t lock into any one thing.
He had a mischievous sparkle in his eye. You could play a joke on him and he would roll with it, but you could be pretty sure that he would come back with something when you weren’t expecting it.
He was competitive and sports were often the way that he channeled that spirit. Jay played soccer, basketball and baseball – he still holds his high school’s record in baseball.
Jason’s teams often won. When he won, he wouldn’t make the other team feel bad. He would congratulate his teammates and then go shake hands with the other team.
But it was his quiet sense of kindness that I remember most. He would always want to help out the little guy, the underdog, even when he was young.
Jason received the Medal of Honor for sacrificing himself to save others. What he did is great. But my son would have said, “Oo-rah! Let’s go have a beer.”
There was always one more challenge for him to find and meet in his life.
Like many families across America, my husband Dan and I would not have been able to afford college for our four children. Jason knew that and in the summer of his junior year in high school, we would sit in the living room and talk about what he wanted to do.
My husband was in the Air Force and he believes that everyone should serve a few years in the military, because it polishes you.
So Jay went into the Marine Corps – because it’s the toughest training and something he could hold over his father’s head. He’d say, “I work in the men’s department of the military.”
Jason joined the Corps before 9/11, but he believed in what he was doing in Iraq.
His sense of right and wrong was keen. He thought that when someone has a lot of power and a lot of strength, you have a responsibility to help the little brother.
I just miss him.
For those parents who still have children in Iraq, I say, support your child.
This is a volunteer military that we have — these men and women have more courage, more dignity and more patriotism than I have seen in years.
Take the phone calls, send the letters and the care packages. They know you are scared, but they don’t need to go through two types of war.
It’s not a political issue when it’s your child. They are doing what they believe is right.
Jason may be gone, but we’ve gained thousands of new sons.
That has helped the healing for us.
CPL Jason Dunham: Your example of valor — a humble American Patriot defending Liberty for all above and beyond the call of duty and in disregard for the peril to your own life — is eternal.
“Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
Live your life worthy of his sacrifice.
(Read more Profiles of Valor here.)
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
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