By JULIE PACE - Associated Press | AP 10 hrs ago
WASHINGTON (AP) Defying orders and tempting fate, Marine corporal Dakota
Meyer charged five times in a Humvee into heavy gunfire in the darkness of an
Afghanistan valley to rescue comrades under attack from Taliban insurgents.
On Thursday, Meyer was presented with the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest
military award, by President Barack Obama.
Meyer's courage during the six-hour ambush and firefight saved the lives of 36
people, both Americans and Afghans. He killed at least eight Taliban
insurgents. Firing from a gun turret on top of the Humvee driven by a fellow
Marine, he provided cover for his team, allowing many to escape likely death.
He was defying orders from his commanders, who told him to stay back. The kill
zone, they said, was too dangerous. But the young corporal, just 21 years old
at the time, knew his friends were trapped that early morning in September
2009.
"In Sgt. Dakota Meyer, we see the best of a generation that has served with
distinction through a decade of war," Obama said during a ceremony in the East
Room of the White House.
Meyer, later promoted to sergeant and now out of the Marines, is the third
living recipient and the first Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor for
actions in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The modest, soft-spoken 23-year-old now lives in his home state of Kentucky,
working construction in the tiny town of Greensburg.
Obama praised Meyer for his humility and work ethic. When the White House tried
to reach him in the middle of a workday to tell him his medal had been
approved, he worried about whether he could take a call while on the job. So
the White House arranged for the president to call during Meyer's lunch break.
With a smile, Obama thanked him for taking the call.
On the eve of the Medal of Honor ceremony, Obama and Meyer met in person,
chatting on a patio near the White House Rose Garden, over a beer.
Despite Meyer's heroism, four Americans died in the ambush: 1st Lt. Michael
Johnson, a 25-year-old from Virginia Beach; Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, 30, of
Roswell, Ga.; Corpsman James Layton, 22, of Riverbank, Calif.; and Edwin Wayne
Johnson Jr., a 31-year-old gunnery sergeant from Columbus, Ga. A fifth man,
Army Sgt. Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, of Shiprock, N.M., later died from his
wounds.
Meyer says he has struggled with the national attention, with being recognized
for the worst day of his life. He requested that memorial services for those
who died that day be held in their hometowns at the same time he received the
Medal of Honor.
The president assured Meyer that he had let no one down.
"Dakota, I know you've grappled with the grief of that day, that you said your
efforts were somehow a failure because your teammates didn't come home," the
president said. "But as your commander in chief and on behalf of everyone here
today and all Americans, I want you to know it's quite the opposite."
For all the praise heaped upon Meyer, questions have also been raised about
whether the military could have prevented the deaths of the five Americans. Two
Army officers were reprimanded for being "inadequate and ineffective" and for
"contributing directly to the loss of life" following an investigation into the
day's events.
"You can't say this with any certainty, but the chances are, in my opinion,
that yes they would have been" still alive, said retired Col. Richard Hooker,
who led the investigation. Hooker spoke during an interview with CBS' "60
Minutes."
Meyer was part of a security team supporting a patrol moving into a village in
the Ganjgal Valley on Sept. 8, 2009. Suddenly, the lights in a nearby village
went out and gunfire erupted. About 50 Taliban insurgents on mountainsides and
in the village had ambushed the patrol.
As the forward team took fire and called for air support that wasn't coming,
Meyer begged his command to let him head into the incoming fire to help.
Four times he was denied before he and another Marine, Staff Sgt. Juan
Rodriguez-Chavez, jumped into the Humvee and headed into the fray. For his
valor, Rodriguez-Chavez, a 34-year-old who hailed originally from Acuna,
Mexico, would be awarded the Navy Cross.
With Meyer manning the Humvee's gun turret, the two drew heavy fire. But they
began evacuating wounded Marines and American and Afghan soldiers to a safe
point. Meyer made five trips into the kill zone.
During that fifth trip into the kill zone, a helicopter arrived at last to
provide overhead support. Troops aboard the chopper told Meyer they had spotted
what appeared to be four bodies. Meyer knew those were his friends.
"It might sound crazy, but it was just, you don't really think about it, you
don't comprehend it, you don't really comprehend what you did until looking
back on it," Meyer said.
Wounded and tired, Meyer left the relative safety of the Humvee and ran out on
foot.
Ducking around buildings to avoid gunfire, he reached the bodies of his fallen
comrades.
Meyer and two other troops dodged bullets and rocket-propelled grenades to pull
the bodies out of a ditch where the men had died while trying to take cover.