Glover had enlisted in the Marines and before he was deployed to Iraq, Hayden presented him with a small cross made from World Trade Center steel. Glover had a tiny hole drilled in the top and he was wearing the cross around his neck as the street patrol came to an exposed intersection in Fallujah. He was leading the way to the opposite corner when he was mortally wounded by a sniper.

McKenna and everybody else knew that the sniper was just waiting for someone to come to the wounded Marine’s aid. But McKenna was not going to leave Glover sprawled unattended in the street.

McKenna dashed from safety into the most mortal danger. He knelt beside Glover just as he once had by that injured boy back in Brooklyn.

“Ignoring imminent peril from heavy incoming fire, Capt. McKenna ran into the intersection in an effort to save his downed Marine,” reads the citation for the Silver Star that McKenna was awarded posthumously. “Completely exposed to enemy fire, he calmly knelt next to the stricken Marine to assess his condition. As he began to drag the Marine to a covered position, Capt. McKenna was hit by enemy fire and mortally wounded.”