U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter getting help from his neighbors

When Christ said, "Love thy neighbor" this is exactly what he was talking about. Kyle Carpenter decided to serve the nation in the Marines and the fact he very well may have laid down his life doing it didn't stop him. His community stepped up when he came home wounded, yet again, out of love. Amazing story.

Saturday, Sep. 17, 2011

BENEFIT
Gilbert Marine, family to get help
BY JEFF WILKINSON - jwilkinson@thestate.com

Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, flanked by his parents, Jim and Robin Carpenter of Gilbert, laughs during a press conference in March at the State House. Lance Cpl. Carpenter was injured by a hand grenade in Afghanistan and was honored in the senate chambers.
- Tracy Glantz /tglantz@thestate.com

On Nov. 21, during the troop “surge” in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter of Gilbert was fighting on a rooftop near Marjah.

The Marines were fighting in a village they called Shadier because it was between two other villages they named Shady and Shadiest. During the firefight, a hand grenade landed in front of Carpenter and his best friend in Afghanistan, Cpl. Nick Eufrazio of Plymouth, Mass.

Carpenter absorbed most of the blast, which took his right eye, many of his teeth and mangled his right arm, among other injuries. A sliver of shrapnel went into Eufrazio’s brain. Both men still are being treated at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland.

Carpenter, 21, already has undergone about 35 surgeries and expects 10-12 more.

On Sunday, the Lutheran churches of Lexington County will sponsor a benefit for Carpenter, to raise money to help pay the expenses of family members when they go to Maryland to be with Kyle during those surgeries, and to help Kyle with college when he leaves the Marines.

“The military pays for Kyle’s medical treatment but not the family’s expenses,” said Rev. Eric Wolf of St. John’s Lutheran in Lexington. “And that is a big strain for anyone.”

The numerous surgeries have repaired much of Carpenter’s face and mouth, and given him partial use of his right arm and right hand. Subsequent surgeries will improve such things as finger movement.

“It really just depends on how much surgery Kyle wants and can do,” his mother, Robin Carpenter, said Wednesday. The surgeons “are doing miraculous things. You wouldn’t know he was blown up by a hand grenade on Nov. 21.”
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Marine Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter