Remember this story from last December about the family fighting Yahoo! for access to the e-mail account of Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth? The 20-year-old was killed by a roadside bomb on Nov. 13 during a foot patrol in Al Anbar province. His relatives wanted Yahoo! to violate its privacy policies and supply his password. Yahoo! policy calls for erasing the entire account if, after 120 days, there is no activity.

Yahoo! has now decided to preserve the account, and it now appears that the company may give the password to the family.

Tough case. I still think the company should offer a special option for military users allowing release of their accounts in case of death, instead of making these ad hoc exceptions to their user agreements.

Meantime, the Ellsworth family learned some new details about their son’s heroism. From AP:

Justin Ellsworth’s family also recently learned that the young Marine was awarded a Bronze Star for the action he took shortly before his death.

A letter authorizing the Bronze Star with Combat Distinguished Service revealed that Justin, whose job was to locate and destroy hidden bombs, had discovered a homemade explosive while out on patrol and moved toward the bomb to investigate it.

Discovering the device lacked wires and was likely remote-controlled, Justin warned his fellow Marines to clear the area. By the time he discovered a cell phone was attached to the device, the explosive was detonated. Justin was directly over the bomb at the time.

His effort saved the lives of 11 Marines and spared many others from more serious injuries, the military said.

God bless him.