Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter announced a new book on Thursday that he believes “will truly help people” when it comes out in October.
Carpenter, 29, the youngest living recipient of the nation’s highest award for combat bravery, shared the news of his book launch in a post on Facebook, which he described as “a journey that has evolved through years of struggle, self-reflection, support and love.”
Titled You Are Worth It: Building A Life Worth Fighting For, Carpenter said he first met with coauthor Don Yaeger (as well as author Tiffany Brooks) in Jan. 2018 about the project and presented eight chapter ideas. Fifteen months later, Carpenter said, the book is a “meticulously crafted” memoir and self-help guide that “shows that big battles are accomplished by small victories.”
Book aside, Carpenter’s story of the heroic act that nearly killed him and his remarkable recovery is inspiring in itself. On Nov. 21, 2010, while posted on a rooftop in Afghanistan, Carpenter jumped on top of an enemy grenade and saved a fellow Marine. He nearly died from the grenade shrapnel, which tore into his face and body. He lost his right eye and many of his teeth, and has undergone dozens of surgeries since.
But after dozens of surgeries and years of rehabilitation, Carpenter has remained true to his word in 2014, in which he said, “I’m just getting started.”
From the book’s publisher:
What he has accomplished in the last five years is truly extraordinary: he’s undergone extensive physical rehabilitation, graduated from college, ran three marathons, and embarked on a new career as a motivational speaker. And in 2014, he was awarded the our nation’s highest military decoration, Medal of Honor, by President Barack Obama, making Carpenter the youngest living recipient of the award.
Those who have kept up with Carpenter on Instagram — his handle is @chiksdigscars — know he has traveled extensively and met with many people in the U.S. and abroad, which has offered some interesting anecdotes that will appear in the book, such as “stories with homeless people and gang members to eating dinner on a dirt road deep in the heart of Mexico,” he wrote on Facebook.
“You Are Worth It is a memoir about the War in Afghanistan and Kyle’s heroics, yes, but it also is a manual for living. Organized around the credos that have guided Kyle’s life (from ‘Don’t Hide Your Scars’ to ‘Call Your Mom’), the book encourages us to become our best selves in the time we’ve been given on earth,” the publisher wrote.
Carpenter’s book is available for preorder and will be released on Oct. 15.