Survivors cope with guilt over grenade heroism

Survivors cope with guilt over grenade heroism
By Gregg Zoroya - USA TodayPosted : Thursday Sep 20, 2007 12:45:05 EDT

Army Staff Sgt. Ian Newland spotted the enemy grenade inside the Humvee. Almost simultaneously, he saw Spc. Ross McGinnis, 19 — a gunner standing in the turret of the vehicle — lower himself onto it.

“I saw him jam it with his elbow up underneath him,” said Newland, who was sitting inches away. “He pressed his whole body with his back [armor] plate to smother it up against the radios.”

The heat and flash of an explosion followed, and McGinnis was killed. Hours later, after surgery for shrapnel wounds, Newland realized the enormity of what happened: McGinnis had sacrificed himself to save four other soldiers in the Humvee on Dec. 4.
“Why he did it? Because we were his brothers. He loved us,” Newland said.

Since the Iraq war began, at least five Americans — two soldiers, two Marines and a Navy SEAL — are believed to have thrown themselves on a grenade to save comrades. Each time, the service member died from massive wounds.

Heroic acts mark every war. Among the most remarkable involve self-sacrifice.
“What a decision that is,” said Frank Farley, a Temple University psychologist who studies bravery. “I can’t think of anything more profound in human nature.”

Survivors, while deeply grateful for their lives, find the aftermath complicated. According to interviews with a dozen surviving soldiers, sailors and Marines, there remains an overpowering sense of guilt and an unspoken feeling that they need to be worthy of the sacrifice.
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