Photo By Rachel Larue | Kyle Carpenter, a 25-year-old Medal of Honor recipient, gives remarks during a press...... read more read more
JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - Actor Sean Astin and Medal of Honor recipient retired Marine Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter live distinctly different lives, but an Oct. 24 Marine Corps Marathon press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., made them instant friends.
Astin, who has appeared in critically-acclaimed films and box-office smashes “Rudy,” “Goonies” and the “Lord of the Rings” series, even lobbied the audience for the right to play Carpenter if his life story gets to the cinemas.
“There’s a corporal who’s going to come up here in a second, and I think I could play him in a movie. I’m old enough to be his dad; I just want to thank him, too,” Astin said before the introduction of Carpenter.
In November 2010, Carpenter, while being deployed in Afghanistan, suffered severe injuries to his face and right hand from an enemy grenade blast after he threw himself on top of the ordnance to protect a fellow Marine. On June 19 of this year, Carpenter received the Medal of Honor during a White House ceremony. Four months following the ceremony, the new MOH recipient sky dived to the starting line on Marine Corps Marathon morning as part of a jump unit delivering an American flag and then ran the 26.2 mile course.
During a meeting with the press, Carpenter admitted his nerves would be a bit more frayed preparing for the jump than the actual MOH ceremony.
“Not too much can go wrong during a [Medal of Honor] ceremony, but jumping out of an airplane makes me a little nervous,” the retired Marine said less than 48 hours before the jump.
Astin, who was introduced as a friend of the Marine Corps, was humbled and proud to be named official celebrity starter.
“To have 2,300 Marines and members of the Coast Guard and other members of the Armed Forces come out and work in the nation’s capital of the country they defend in support of civilians is an experience that I’m not too sure you could have in many other countries in the world,” he said. “It’s amazing to say you get to see Marines looking back the other way and supporting you. This is overwhelming.”
Astin put in nearly 600 miles of training before “The People’s Marathon,” and he was hoping for a personal best time.
“I was hoping to go sub four [hours] but that’s not going to happen,” Astin said to laughter. “I’m hoping to get between my best personal best and second best time – around a 4:10:00.”
Astin finished with a 26.2 mile time of 4 hours, 29 minutes and 11 seconds.
Carpenter ran the 2014 MCM in a time of 5:07:45.
For more photos, log onto https://www.flickr.com/photos/jbm-hh/sets/72157648975569882/.
| Date Taken: | 10.30.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.30.2014 11:49 |
| Story ID: | 146569 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 53 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Astin, MOH recipient highlight MCM press conference, by Jim Dresbach, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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