USS Jason Dunham

There is a guided missile Destroyer that is being built that will be named after Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor in Operation Iraqi Freedom.  It will be like the one below, but it will be designated DDG-109.

From MSNBC here:

The U.S. Navy will name a destroyer after Cpl. Jason Dunham, a young Marine from western New York who fell on a grenade in Iraq to save his comrades.

Dunham was already posthumously awarded a Medal of Honor for the selfless act. The emotional White House ceremony in January was attended by President Bush and the Marine’s parents.

Dunham, of Scio, N.Y., saved at least two lives by acting quickly during a struggle with an insurgent near the Syrian border.

The Navy will name its newest guided missile destroyer the USS Jason Dunham, New York lawmakers said Tuesday. A formal ceremony in Scio with Navy Secretary Donald Winters is scheduled for Friday.

In April 2004, Dunham, 22, received a report that a Marine convoy had been ambushed, according to a Marine Corps account. Dunham led his men to the site near Husaybah, halting a convoy of departing cars. An insurgent in one of the vehicles grabbed him by the throat when he went to search the car and the two fought.

A grenade was dropped, and Dunham covered the explosive with his Kevlar helmet, which, along with his chest armor plate, absorbed some of the blast.  He lived long enough to be transferred to a Bethesda, Md., hospital, where he died with his parents beside him.

A great video of Dunham’s heroism is here.