When Hugh Smith lifted the bandaged body of Joe Mann from the battlefield near Best, Holland, in September 1944, he didn’t know he was carrying a former high school football rival. “All I knew was that he was the guy that jumped on the hand grenade,” said Smith, known as “Smitty” in the corridors of the Evergreen Fountains retirement home in Spokane Valley where he resides with his wife, Anita. Twenty-three years and thousands of miles separate Mann and Bruce Grandstaff, the two men for whom the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center will be officially renamed today. What binds them is a dedication to the service of country for which both men lost their lives and earned the nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor/Kip Hill, SR. More here. (SR Photo: Dan Pelle)

Question: Has your family lost anyone to war?