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SOUTHERN FINGER LAKES

A Golden Girl: Jason’s gifts

“The Gift,” a documentary on Corporal Jason Dunham’s story airs on January 21

A COLUMN By Kathryn Ross,

One of my possessions of which I am most proud is a creamy white, gold trimmed, invitation embossed with gold lettering inviting me to be the guest of President George W. Bush at the reception in the White House following the Medal of Honor Ceremony for U.S. Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham. It is dated January 11, 2007.

Eighteen years is a long time ago, but the cherished memories of those few days I spent in Washington, the friends I made there and before, come back clearly. The story of Jason Dunham continues to haunt my soul and probably will forever. Part of Jason’s story will be shown on Apple TV and Prime television on January 21st when “The Gift” airs.

My relation to the Jason Dunham story continues well past 2007. The Medal of Honor ceremony wasn’t the start, it is just a part. The story started in April 2004 when the family of Scio learned that Jason, a 2000 Scio high school graduate, had been injured while serving in Iraq. The word spread quickly.

It wasn’t long before it seeped into the Daily Reporter newsroom. Somehow, it fell on my desk, and like a good reporter, I followed up. But it was the way I followed up that got me on the bus to the White House ceremony and a berth on USS Jason Dunham.

When the news broke in April 2004 reporters from New York City, Buffalo and Rochester all clamored to get the story and as they do, they acted as though it was their right to badger and intrude on the Dunham family’s worry and grief to get their headlines. But I’m from Allegany County, and here we respect people’s privacy, and I was brought up to be courteous and compassionate to others facing difficult times.

At the time I was deeply involved in my 26-year-old great nephew’s life. He’d left home and was living in Rochester. Because I was worried about him and the path he was on, I knew how the Dunhams must have felt when they received the news that 22-year-old Jason was critically injured thousands of miles away from home.

I could empathize with them.

That was the key. I can say now that I became friends with Jason’s parents, Dan and Deb. I was polite and understanding in all my dealings with them – their trip to Bethesda Medical Center, Jason’s death and his funeral under the basketball net in the Scio school gym.  As a result, I got access others didn’t.

That is how I got to the White House, the christening of the U.S.S. Jason Dunham in Maine, and on the ship for the shakedown cruise from Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale the night before the ship’s commissioning.

During that trip to Washington, DC I sat on a bus next to Heidi Squires Kraft. She told me about sitting with Jason and realizing that the young soldier who had been relegated to a room to die, might have a chance to live after he squeezed her hand at her urging.

Kraft, a Navy psychiatrist, wrote a book called “Rule Number 2” that includes her time with Jason.

When the group of friends and relatives toured the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia I met Wall Street Journal reporter Michael M. Phillips who while embedded in Iraq learned the story of Jason and wrote it for his publication. He later penned a book entitled “The Gift of Valor”.

I hope “The Gift” is as poignant as those two books.

When Jason threw his Kevlar helmet and his body on the grenade tossed by the Iraqi insurgent with whom he was engaged in hand-to-hand combat, his action saved the lives of two of his fellow soldiers, Pfc Kelly Miller and Lance Cpl. William (Billy) Hampton.

This is a photo of Jason’s commander Maj. Trent Gibson and his friend Sgt, Mark Dean sorting the shredded pieces of the Kevlar helmet five years after the pieces were recovered from that dusty street in Iraq.

Part of the helmet was placed inside the main mast of the USS Jason Dunham. The rest is in the Marine Corps Museum.

I’m sure that while “The Gift” recounts the story of Jason’s sacrifice, I’m also sure that it is about, the gift of life Miller and Kelly received as a result of that sacrifice. It is a story for all of us to see and especially for our children to see.


Kathryn Ross is a Wellsville based writer, reporter, and columnist. She can be contacted anytime kathr_2002@yahoo.com