He heard the hand grenade well before he saw it. And as the seconds ticked away and Robert D. Maxwell searched blindly through the darkness, he decided that the only thing worse than running away was picking up the explosive device and attempting to throw it back at the enemy — an act that risked killing the three soldiers crouched alongside him.
When he finally found the grenade, lying on the cement courtyard outside his battalion’s embattled observation post in eastern France, he did the only thing that made sense. Clutching a blanket to his chest, he dropped on top of the device, absorbing the full force of its explosion and saving the lives of his comrades.
“It’s not the case that I was brave or a hero or anything like that,” Mr. Maxwell, an Army technician fifth grade during World War II, said years later. “Because I just did what the only alternative was at the time. There was nothing else to do.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/robert-maxwell-medal-of-honor-recipient-who-fell-on-grenade-to-save-lives-dies-at-98/2019/05/14/7f40c290-75c8-11e9-b7ae-390de4259661_story.html
https://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/7157302-151/bends-bob-maxwell-nations-oldest-medal-of-honor