WASHINGTON —  President Bush on Monday presented the nation's highest military award to a young soldier killed in Iraq when he threw himself on a hand grenade tossed into a Humvee where four other soldiers sat.

Ross McGinnis of Knox, Pa., was 19 years old when he gave his life to save the lives of his colleagues.

"The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest military distinction," the president said. "It's given for valor beyond anything that duty could require or a superior could command."

Bush was joined at a White House ceremony by Vice President Dick Cheney and military leaders, McGinnis' parents, Tom and Romayne, and others.