Acting Warrant Officer Class 2 Michael Marvin, NZBM, for an act of bravery
Acting Warrant Officer Class Two Michael Marvin, then a Staff Sergeant, was conducting the role of safety supervisor during a grenade-throwing practice at the New Zealand Defence Force Raumai Range on 18 June 2020, to re-qualify soldiers on the operation of the hand grenade. During this activity, Acting Warrant Officer Class Two Marvin stood opposite the soldiers being requalified, observing their drills and handling of the grenades in removing the pin, throwing action and ensuring the thrower assumed a position behind the range safety barricade prior to detonation. Acting Warrant Officer Class Two Marvin carried out his checks of a junior soldier who approached to carry out their grenade throwing drill. He asked the soldier to confirm their intended target on the range. With checks completed, he instructed the soldier to throw the grenade. The soldier removed the pin, took a throwing stance and released the grenade in a misthrow. The grenade landed dangerously close to the thrower at a distance of no more than 1.5 metres and did not clear the natural rise that afforded the area of cover and safety during detonation. Acting Warrant Officer Class Two Marvin immediately reacted realising that the grenade had not cleared the top of the mound. He yelled “drop grenade” and tackled the soldier rearward into a small depression in the ground around one metre below and approximately four metres away from the grenade, smothering the soldier with his body, thereby providing a shield from the blast. In the process he received fragmentation blast injuries from eight ball bearings to his lower body.
Unaware of his injuries, Acting Warrant Officer Class Two Marvin immediately stood up to check on the soldier and began to conduct a primary injury assessment following detonation of the grenade. The soldier was in obvious pain, having received an injury to the leg from a ball bearing. While Acting Warrant Officer Class Two Marvin was trained and prepared to act as a safety supervisor, an anomalous occurrence in a routine training activity presented a real and immediate danger, to which he responded swiftly, putting his own safety at risk to prevent the loss of life or significant injury to the junior soldier.