God Bless that brave man, and all the others like him.
A WW2 Marine I knew quite well told me that Corps always gave the BARs to the smallest guys in the platoon. (He was one of them.) I had the greatest respect for him. He was wounded on Iwo, but preferred to talk about his experiences during the first weeks of the occupation of Japan, especially how welcoming the ordinary Japanese were. Working-class women had been cruelly repressed prior to the arrival of the Americans, and he said they would often applaud when a Marine put a stop to abuse by the men.
The Corps recruited him in his later years to talk to new recruits about what it meant to be a Marine. I know why. RIP Bernie Link. You did your duty proudly.