Navy Destroyer named after Medal of Honor Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham

FILE - This undated family photo shows U.S. Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who died April 22, 2004, after sustaining a head injury from a shrapnel wound, April 14, 2004, in Iraq. He was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. A Navy destroyer will be christened in his honor Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. (AP Photo/The Wellsville Daily Reporter, courtesy Dunham family, File)

Warship honors Marine who died protecting comrades
By DAVID SHARP (AP)

BATH, Maine — Marines flushing out Iraqi insurgents after an ambush came upon a column of vehicles. A van with a father and son. A pickup truck. A tractor. A BMW with a couple of sheiks. And a Toyota Land Cruiser with four young men, all of them insurgents.

As Marines began searching the vehicles, the driver of the Land Cruiser jumped out and attacked Cpl. Jason Dunham. The two men tumbled onto the dirt road. Two Marines ran up to assist but Dunham cried out, "No, no, no, watch his hand!"

A grenade exploded, rocking the narrow street.

Dunham, 22, of Scio, N.Y., mortally wounded as he saved his comrades that day, will be honored Saturday at the christening of the Navy's newest destroyer, the USS Jason Dunham. The young corporal who threw his Kevlar helmet and his body onto the grenade became the first Marine since the Vietnam War to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor.

His mother, Deb Dunham, said she can't think of a greater tribute.
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Warship honors Marine who died protecting comrades