Medal of Honor Monday: Billie Gene Kanell

His sister would later remember him as a gentle soul.

“He always made sure before we did something that everything was okay, little things to make sure his baby sisters and brothers didn’t get hurt,” she told a reporter. He mediated bickering among the siblings, and he helped them with things like band-aids or inflating bicycle tires. He “always had a protective nature about him,” she concluded.

Perhaps that protective nature prompted what came next?