Memorial Day hero brought shovel to gun fight.

My sister, who is currently in Iraq, asked me in April how she could get a KIA bracelet like the one I wear on my wrist with the name of a girl I knew who died there.

Since her birthday was coming up, I told her I would send her one, available here, as a gift. I kind of spaced on my promise and she asked again earlier this week as Memorial Day was approaching.

The bracelets can be custom made or ordered with a random name from a list of military personal companies keep.

Since she doesn't know anyone who has died in Iraq or Afghanistan, she didn't have a preference as to whose name appeared on the bracelet. I, however, did.

I chose the name of PFC Melvin L. Brown, a soldier who served and died, in Korea. I first learned of PFC Brown in December and wrote the facebook note that appears below.

I sent it to my sister so she would know the story and be able to share it with people who ask her about her bracelet.

In honor of Memorial Day, I wish to share the story (with some slight family-friendly editing) now:

Almost every field, building and training range on an Army post is named after someone who has gave their life on the battlefield.

Brown Hall, which my class visited today, is no different. Inside the engineer schoolhouse was a plaque describing PFC Melvin L. Brown's actions that found his family holding a Medal of Honor and a building being named after him.

The plaque doesn't read, "PFC Melvin L. Brown was an all-around stud," but it might as well.

It tells, in different words, this story:

On Sept. 4, 1950, Brown's platoon was taking a hill in Korea when they came under attack. Brown took up a position behind a wall. He eventually ran out of ammo and was wounded, but he didn't give up. He threw his grenades at the enemy and when he ran out of his own, he crawled to his buddies' fox holes, got their grenades and threw those too while taking fire.

Then when he ran out of those, he did something so brave and crazy, they had to give him the country's highest military award to accommodate his efforts.

He took out his e-tool and as the enemy looked over the wall, he took them out one-by-one with a blow to the head.

Who brings a shovel to a gun fight? PFC Brown, that's who. His unit was so inspired, they rallied and took the hill, but not before watching him take out 10-12 bad guys.

Brown was declared missing in action the next day and was later declared dead. Unlike today where one has to wait a long time after their death to receive the Medal of Honor, Brown's family received his award the same month they were notified of his death.

Brown's story sticks out to me because not only was he a great solider, but I happen to have a history with his weapon of choice, the e-tool. It's the one piece of Army equipment I love to hate.

The e-tool is a shovel that folds into thirds to make it easy to carry. It's a standard issue for any solider and I've made it a point to never use it. The only time I used it was when I happened to have it in my Explorer when I got it stuck in the mud and had to dig myself out. And now that I'm a 2LT, I have no clue where my e-tool is. I don't dig holes. I'm never going to dig a hole with my e-tool. If I need a hole dug, I have 27 soldiers I can ask to do so. Those 27 soldiers can use one of our heavy pieces of equipment to dig it.

It hasn't always been this way. There was a time I had to take my e-tool everywhere I went, including the first part of my officer training in South Dakota. When I packed, I threw everything I could in two duffel bags but still had a little left over, so I put the rest in my ruck sack. When I checked into the airport, I was told it would cost $50 to check three bags in so I decided to make my ruck my carry on.

I didn't know what was in it, and didn't even think to check. However, when I went though security, they wanted to know what was in my ruck and pulled me over to the side so they could inspect its contents. I had to, without touching it, explain to the lady how to open it, where she found not only my canteens still filled with water but my e-tool as well. She wasn't sure what to make of the e-tool so she called over a co-worker.

The co-worker was an older guy who happened to be retired from the military.

"I know what this is," he said as he pulled it out.

The lady asked if it was on the banned list and he said no, but that he couldn't let me take it any further because, "you can use this (the e-tool) to harm someone. Trust me, I know."

I had to leave the group of soldiers I was traveling with to check the ruck in at the counter (which they ended up not charging me for) who laughed at me and called me "E-tool" the remainder of the one-year course.

I walked away thinking the airport security employee was just being a crazy, old guy. But it turns out, you really can harm people with an e-tool. And they give you a Medal of Honor for doing so.

Though if Brown hadn't had an e-tool that day, he probably still would have won the Medal of Honor. He would have used the butt stock of his weapon, his Kevlar, a tree branch, something, anything he could have found to fend off the enemy on top of his wall. Soldiers like Brown are the type of soldiers leaders hope to have in their platoon some day. Most of the time, we lead our soldiers, but sometimes, they lead us.