A Natural Hero

Medal of Honor winner, 19, remembered by his parents

By DAN NEPHIN Associated Press Writer
SHIPPENVILLE, Pa. — Growing up in a small rural town, Ross McGinnis was more apt to get in trouble than on the honor roll. So he enlisted in the Army, and in just under a year, found his soulmate, a brotherhood, and even himself.

“I just cannot wait for the day when I can connect all 3 lives into one,” McGinnis wrote on his MySpace page. “But that day will not be for a long time.”

The 19-year-old private first class would never get that chance.

McGinnis was in the gunner’s hatch of a Humvee on Dec. 4, 2006, when a grenade sailed past him and into the vehicle where four other soldiers sat. He shouted a warning, then jumped back-first on the grenade, which blew up and killed him.

On Monday, the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, will be awarded to him posthumously.

“Ross was a hero, I mean, he was, honestly the type of soldier that was trustworthy, that was reliable, that was dependable before combat. He loved doing what he was doing,” said Ian Newland, one of the soldiers McGinnis saved.

McGinnis grew up in the small town of Knox, about 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, where he lived with his parents, Tom and Romayne, and his older sisters Becky and Katie. The family lives several miles away in a neat and modest mobile home they moved into after Ross left for the Army, and his father jokes that he’s a redneck: unsophisticated and living in rural northwestern Pennsylvania. He works at an auto supply store. Romayne works at Wal-Mart.

To tell his son’s story, Tom McGinnis believes it must be told truthfully, rough patches and all.

“He wasn’t the hero in the sense that a lot of people that think of heroes,” his father said. “He made some bad decisions, but he still turned out to be a good person ... And that’s really the message that I’m trying to get across by pointing out his faults. Not that I’m trying to disparage him in some way.”

So he tells of his son’s arrest for being caught, at age 14, with marijuana in school and of getting expelled for the rest of eighth grade. He finished at an alternative school he liked so much, he didn’t want to return to regular school.

“He didn’t pick up things at school like he should, for whatever reason. And his grades always suffered,” his father said.

Eventually, Ross McGinnis decided the Army could provide him training as an automotive technician. He enlisted on his 17th birthday: June 14, 2004 — same as the Army’s — through the delayed entry program.

“When he told us that he was going to enlist, we didn’t discourage him, because we knew he wasn’t college material,” his father said.

Once in the Army, Ross proved himself a quick learner and showed leadership.

He met his girlfriend Christina, whom he called his soulmate and true love, while stationed in Germany. It’s there, too, where he developed tight bonds with his fellow soldiers. He and his Army buddies would make fun of each other all the time, he wrote online, but outsiders who dared do the same, watch out.

“He definitely loved to make jokes and get everyone laughing, but when things got serious ... you only had to tell Ross one time. He had it down,” recalled Newland, 28, who was a sergeant when McGinnis was assigned to him in Germany. “He was a natural.”

The two become close before deploying to Iraq. McGinnis would often spend weekends with Newland, his wife, daughter and son, becoming part of the family.

“That’s the way my family viewed him and the other soldiers as well. We all saw him as a brother,” said Newland, who retired in November due to the shrapnel injuries from the grenade attack.

“My daughter still, every night when she says her prayers, thanks Ross for saving her daddy’s life,” he said.

While stationed overseas, McGinnis e-mailed his father to apologize for the problems he caused when he was young. In his reply, Tom McGinnis told his son there was no need to say he was sorry, and that he wished he had been a better provider to his family.

Ross McGinnis proudly shared the e-mail with several fellow soldiers.

“He said they bonded more that one day than they had throughout their training,” his father said. “When he called home to tell me about it ... He says, ‘You son of a bitch, you made me cry.’”

McGinnis would come home only twice on leave before he was killed, the last time for a couple of weeks in the spring of 2006. His family noticed how he matured since enlisting.

“He was more reserved and more confident and seemed to stand a lot taller, although he didn’t grow any while he was in the Army,” his father said. “He was a man. Unfortunately, we never really got to know him as a man. He was a child when he left, he got to visit with us a couple times, then he was gone.”

McGinnis last spoke to his parents on a Friday, three days before he was killed. He called his mother at Wal-Mart, where it was easier to reach her.

“So I’d take the call out on the floor. You talk about hard to keep your composure when your son is calling from Iraq,” she recalled.

He told her his picture was on the front of Stars and Stripes, a U.S. Armed Forces newspaper, accompanying an article about his unit coming under attack after Saddam Hussein was convicted.

“He was really proud of that picture and he carried it with him, they said. And he called and told us about it,” his father said. “And on Monday, I was bragging about his fame. Monday night, we learned that he was dead.”

More than a year after his death, friends still leave messages to McGinnis on his MySpace page. “Hey man i miss you so much and i wish you were here,” one poster wrote in April.

The other soldiers in the Humvee — Sgt. Lyle Buehler, Sgt. 1st Class Cedric Thomas and Spc. Sean Lawson — are still serving in the military. They were scheduled to attend Monday’s Medal of Honor ceremony and were unavailable for interviews, an Army spokesman said.

Newland still struggles with knowing he’s alive because of his friend’s sacrifice. If McGinnis would have instead jumped from the Humvee to save his own life, no one would have faulted him. After all, he’d been trained to do just that, Newland said.

“I’ve never felt more proud in my life to have known somebody and have shared so many experiences with somebody and to have someone call me their friend,” Newland said, “but at the same time, never felt so guilty and ripped apart from the inside and outside and almost wishful that events could have been changed.”

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On the Net:

Ross McGinnis’ Army Medal of Honor page: http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/mcginnis