Medal of Honor Recipient Robert Maxwell Dies in 2019-- Part 1: Fell on a Grenade

From the May 16, 2019, Chicago Tribune "Medal of Honor recipient fell on grenade to save lives" by Harrison Smith, Washington Post.

He heard the hand grenade before he saw it,  And as the seconds ticked away and Robert Maxwell searched blindly through the darkness, he decided that the only thing worse than running away was picking it up and attempting to throw it back at the enemy -- an act that risked killing the three soldiers crouched alongside him.

When he finally found the grenade lying on the cement courtyard outside his battalion's embattled observation post in eastern France, he did the only thing that made sense.  Clutching a blanket to his chest, he dropped on top of the device, absorbing the full force of the explosion and saving the lives of his comrades.

"It's not the case that I was brave or a hero or anything like that," Maxwell, an Army Technician fifth grade during World War II, said years later.  "Because I just did what the only alternative was at the time.  There was nothing else to do."

For his actions early that morning on September 7, 1944, Maxwell was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration for valor.  He was 98, the oldest surviving Medal recipient when he died May 11, 2019, in Bend, Oregon, leaving only three surviving recipients from World War II.

--GreGen