[citation needed] Such an act can be survivable: In World War I British soldier John Carmichael was awarded the Victoria Cross for saving his men by putting his steel helmet over a grenade and then standing on the helmet to reduce the blast damage.
[1] In World War II, U.S. Marine Jack Lucas, in the Battle of Iwo Jima, leapt onto an enemy grenade, jamming it into the volcanic ash and soft sand with his rifle and covering it with his body, while reaching out and pulling the other one beneath him.
In 2008 near Sangin in Afghanistan, British Royal Marine Matthew Croucher used his rucksack to pin a tripwire grenade to the floor.
On November 21, 2010, in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Kyle Carpenter threw himself upon a grenade, to save a fellow Marine in his sandbagged position, sustaining injuries to his face and right arm and losing his right eye.
With modern medicine, however, odds are greatly increased when compared to falling on a grenade in the 20th century.