Dakota Meyer will be awarded the Medal of Honor at the White House on Sept. 15th !!

[Ron C.]

I just checked my email and found this message from Brent Casey, Woody Williams' grandson.

"I am extremely overjoyed to share the following news !! ...and just in time for the Medal of Honor Society's National Convention in Louisville (Sept 28-Oct 2)
Brent Casey

Marine To Receive Medal Of Honor Next Month
Dakota Meyer First Living Marine To Receive Honor For Actions In Afghanistan Or Iraq
By the CNN Wire Staff
POSTED: 7:15 pm EDT August 12, 2011
UPDATED: 7:53 pm EDT August 12, 2011


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama next month will present the Medal of Honor to the first living Marine to receive the recognition for actions in Afghanistan or Iraq, the White House announced Friday.
Dakota Meyer was in Afghanistan's Kunar province in September 2009 when he repeatedly ran through enemy fire to recover the bodies of fellow American troops.
He will be honored during a White House ceremony Sept. 15.
Meyer will be the third living Medal of Honor recipient from service in the current war theaters.
No longer on active duty, Meyer returned to Columbia, Kentucky.
"The award honors the men who gave their lives that day, and the men who were in that fight," Meyer said, according to a Marine newsletter. "I didn't do anything more than any other Marine would. I was put in an extraordinary circumstance, and I just did my job."
Meyer, who serves in the Inactive Ready Reserve of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve as a sergeant, said in November that he didn't want to discuss details of the incident because it's still difficult to think about.
"I was a failure," Meyer told CNN last fall. "My guys died. That was my whole team."
The Marines didn't see it that way. A defense official with knowledge of the award process last fall said that just before he retired, former U.S. Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway recommended Meyer for the nation's highest award for bravery.
According to the Marine Times, which first reported the award recommendation, then-Cpl. Meyer ran four times through a hail of enemy fire to recover the bodies of three fallen Marines and a Navy medic. He had shrapnel wounds in his right arm.
Meyer and others also helped rescue and evacuate 15 wounded Afghan soldiers.
"Sgt. Meyer embodies all that is good about our nation's Corps of Marines," Marine Commandant Gen. James F. Amos said Friday. "He is a living example of the brave young men and women whose service, fidelity and sacrifice make us so proud."
Meyer will become only the second Marine to earn the Medal of Honor from the current wars. In April 2004, Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham was leading a patrol in an Iraqi town near the Syrian border when a person in a vehicle dropped a grenade. Dunham hurled himself on top it, using his helmet to try to blunt the force of the blast. He died eight days later and received the honor posthumously.
"There's not a day -- not a second that goes by where I don't think about what happened that day," the Marines quoted Meyer as saying. "I didn't just lose four Marines that day; I lost four brothers."
CNN Pentagon producer Larry Shaugnessy contributed to this report.
Copyright CNN 2011

Read more: http://www.wlky.com/news/28852186/detail.html#ixzz1UsPgwhez"

Ron

[Ron C.]

For those of you who missed the ceremony.

Brent sent me this for you.

"For those of you who missed this today, here is a link to the ceremony"


http://cnettv.cnet.com/former-marine...-50111579.html




Ron

[Ron C.]

In case you were interested.........

I wanted to tell you that both Woody and his grandson, Brent, were there. I don't have a photo of Woody to post in his post, but here is one of SGT Dakota Meyer and Brent at the ceremony. It is sort of interesting that at the time of the action on Iwo Jima, Woody was a 21 year old USMC CPL, if memory serves me correctly. Woody likes all service people, but he is particularly fond of Marines.......so he was there for SGT Meyer's award ceremony.

Ron

[Towarish]

Thanks for the photo Ron.
Congrats to Sgt. Meyer - he has done an outstanding job.
RIP to his killed comrades.

I know some chaps who served with him at some point - they say he's the most "down to earth guy" they've ever met.

Philipp

[mvm71]

A true hero in every sense of the word, and a roll model for everyone.

Congrats to a true American Hero.
Mike

[Bcarver]

And like all other Heros, he will tell you he is not a hero at all he only did what was right.

[Towarish]

Wall Street Journal
15 September 2011
Pg. 17

The Afghan Rescue Mission Behind Today's Medal Of Honor - Inside a village on the Pakistan border, America's defining values were on display.

By Bing West

President Obama will today award the Medal of Honor to Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer. In attendance will be a handful of soldiers and Marines who, one day in September 2009, were abandoned by their chain of command and relied on their own initiative to dislodge a fierce enemy. Their battle has entered military folklore and resulted not only in today's Medal of Honor but in two Navy Crosses, two investigations for dereliction of duty, three letters of severe reprimand, and a recommendation for a second Medal of Honor.

The setting was the remote Afghan village of Ganjigal, on the Pakistan border, where elders had requested aid in repairing a mosque. Hoping to win hearts and minds, a U.S.-trained Afghan battalion agreed to help. At dawn, about 100 Afghan soldiers and a dozen U.S. Marine advisers entered the valley where Ganjigal is found, picking their way up a narrow, rocky wash toward the stone houses dug into the far end.

It was a setup. Hidden inside the houses and along the wash were 60 jihadists from Pakistan. The ambushers opened fire with machine guns, mortars and rockets. Immediately the foot patrol was pinned down and taking casualties.

Back at the valley's entrance, 21-year-old Cpl. Meyer listened to radio calls for artillery fire that were refused by officers at higher headquarters due to concern for endangering villagers. Cpl. Meyer hopped into the gun turret of a Humvee and persuaded a fellow adviser, Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, to drive him straight into the battle.

When the Humvee lurched into the wash, Cpl. Meyer saw the bodies of roughly a dozen Afghan soldiers strewn across the terrain, some dead and others crying. With bullets striking his truck, he leaped out, stuffed five wounded Afghans inside, and then hopped back up behind the machine gun and hammered away as the pulverized vehicle crawled out of the wash.

Leaving the wounded in the rear, Cpl. Meyer and Sgt. Rodriguez-Chavez swapped Humvees. This time the enemy was waiting in a dry streambed. Rocket-propelled grenades and machine-gun bullets followed Cpl. Meyer as he repeatedly left his armored turret to load the truck with wounded Afghan soldiers. At one point, he shot a tall man with a black beard. When another leapt forward under the barrel of his machine gun, Cpl. Meyer grabbed his M4 rifle and shot him in the head."You'll have to kill me," he shouted in the rage of battle (he had expected to be killed, he told me a few days later at his outpost in Afghanistan), "because that's the only way you'll stop me."

When Cpl. Meyer and Sgt. Rodriguez-Chavez again dropped off the wounded in the rear, they bumped into a backup American platoon in armored vehicles. The platoon refused to join them, so they went back in for a third time with no backup, driving into a torrent of automatic-weapons fire so a group of trapped American advisers could escape. Cpl. Meyer watched women and children darting among the houses, carrying ammunition to the jihadists.

Cpl. Meyer, a qualified sniper, was hit in the right elbow but continued to shoot left-handed until the feeling returned to his right hand. Over the radio, he listened to Capt. Will Swenson, an Army adviser who remained in the valley to fight, calling repeatedly for artillery fire, only to be rebuffed by headquarters.

Pulling back out, Cpl. Meyer took count. Four advisers were still missing. So he gathered those still willing to risk death. In addition to Sgt. Rodriguez-Chavez and Capt. Swenson, an Afghan interpreter and Lt. Ademola Fabayo, another adviser, climbed into the truck with Cpl. Meyer. An Army pilot in a tiny Kiowa helicopter, flying 10 feet above the ground, protected the Humvee from the rear. They drove back into the cauldron a fourth time. After seven hours of fighting, Cpl. Meyer found his four missing comrades, dead. At about the same time, the jihadists had collected their casualties and were trekking back into Pakistan.

Over the following months, two investigations resulted in three letters of reprimand for the unit commanders' failure to provide fire support. Bitterness about the battle and its aftermath lingered among the families of the five dead Americans. While Lt. Fabayo and Sgt. Rodriguez-Chavez received the Navy Cross from the Marine Corps, Capt. Swenson quietly resigned from the Army with no recognition for his valor.

Cpl. Meyer protested against that oversight. Last month, Gen. John R. Allen, the new commander in Afghanistan, re-opened the record of that tumultuous day in Ganjigal. Given the four-star general's personal interest, sworn statements attesting to Capt. Swenson's valor were quickly found. Gen. Allen has since forwarded a Medal of Honor recommendation, saying it was the right thing to do despite a lapse of two years.

As for Dakota Meyer, his Medal of Honor citation speaks for itself. Ignoring withering fire, he had carried 12 wounded Afghans to safety and covered the withdrawal of 24 other Americans and Afghans. He had killed at least eight enemy fighters. He would not be refused in battle.

Men do not suddenly acquire unshakable determination to face almost certain death. At the age of four, young Dakota wanted to drive the old tractor on the family farm in Kentucky. His father told him he had to be old enough to turn the hand crank. An hour later, the tractor roared to life—Dakota had repeatedly jumped from the tractor hood onto the crank until it turned over. When he was five, he solemnly assured his grandmother that he would guard her against robbers. A rugged athlete in high school, he also tutored autistic students. He volunteered for Afghanistan as his second combat tour and risked death to rescue Afghans as well as Americans.

Cpl. Meyer set the example, but he could not have succeeded alone. Others of like mind joined him. Their shared tenacity wasn't rooted solely in fighting for their fellow squad members. In fact, the core group at the end of the fight didn't know each other that well. Capt. Swenson had only a passing acquaintance with Cpl. Meyer, while Lt. Fabayo and Sgt. Rodriquez-Chavez lived at a different base.

Today's ceremony should be a source of pride for all Americans, because Ganjigal wasn't about one warrior. Inside that village on the Pakistan border, the defining values of America—individual initiative, comradeship, valor and determination to prevail despite any odds—were on display.

Mr. West, a Marine infantryman in Vietnam, reports regularly from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan

In his book "The Wrong War" Bing West tells of a situation after the battle at Ganjgal. Corporal Meyer and a US Army Specialist ran ahead to reinforce an Army logistical convoy under fire. They came across a Female Captain in charge of the convoy and told her to radio all medics to her vehicle so they could render aid to the wounded. The Captain responded that they weren't Infantry and that wasn't their job.

Dakota Meyer told her, "Get fvcked" and took matters into his own hands. One of Meyer's teammates said that's just Meyer being Meyer.

[Bcarver]

Thanks for posting that Towarish, I love that M4/203 he has. Reminds me of back in the day.

[5ribbonbar]

Great courage....great honor to his country.

Thanks for sharing from a nothern neighbour who appreciates the efforts of his southern friends.

Cheers,

Glen

[John F.]

Looks like he put on some weight from his in-country photo to being awarded the MoH. Deployments have always been a great weight loss plan. Nonetheless an outsatnding job! Oh yeah...fasten that chinstrap Marine.

[Towarish]

Looks like he put on some weight from his in-country photo to being awarded the MoH. Deployments have always been a great weight loss plan. Nonetheless an outsatnding job! Oh yeah...fasten that chinstrap Marine.

x2 - but that's most likely normal when you EAS'd


Medal of Honor Flag Presentation Ceremony

The official Marine Corps Color Guard present the colors at Sgt. Dakota Meyer's Medal of Honor flag presentation ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington Sept. 16. Meyer is the first living Marine Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War.

Sgt. Dakota Meyer, the first living Marine Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War, walks down Center Walk with Gen. James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, at Meyer's Medal of Honor flag presentation ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington Sept. 16, 2011. Meyer was presented the Medal of Honor the previous day.

Sgt. Dakota Meyer, the first living Marine Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War, stands on Center Walk with Gen. James F. Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, before being presented with his official Medal of Honor flag at Marine Barracks Washington Sept. 16, 2011. Meyer was presented the Medal of Honor by President Barrack Obama the previous day.

Sgt. Dakota Meyer, the first living Marine Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War, stands on Center Walk with Gen. James F. Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, and Col. Paul D. Montanus, Marine Barracks Washington commanding officer, before being presented his official Medal of Honor flag at Marine Barracks Washington Sept. 16, 2011. Meyer was presented the Medal of Honor by President Barrack Obama the previous day.

Sgt. Dakota Meyer, the first living Marine Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War, walks through a crowd of guests after Meyer's Medal of Honor flag presentation ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington Sept. 16, 2011. Meyer was presented the Medal of Honor by President Barrack Obama the previous day.

Sgt. Dakota Meyer, the first living Marine Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War, receives the Medal of Honor flag from Gen. James F. Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, during the Medal of Honor flag presentation ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington Sept. 16. Meyer was presented the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama the previous day

Gen. James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, delivers his remarks during a special Medal of Honor flag presentation ceremony for Sgt. Dakota Meyer, the first living Marine Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War, at Marine Barracks Washington Sept. 16, 2011. Meyer was presented the Medal of Honor by President Barrack Obama the previous day.

Sgt. Dakota Meyer, the first living Marine Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War, salutes as the parade formation marches the pass in review at Meyer's Medal of Honor flag presentation ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington Sept. 16, 2011. Meyer was presented the Medal of Honor by President Barrack Obama the previous day.

[John F.]

x2 - but that's most likely normal when you EAS'd

That is such a true statement. I put on 8lbs since getting out back in June.

[John F.]

Anyone else notice that the neck ribbion isn't shown in the above pics?. I wonder if it is removed or if is he wearing inside his choker?

[Annelie]

Dakota Meyer appeared on 60 minutes last week.

http://www.wkyt.com/news/headlines/D...8.html?ref=248

anyone who saw this will have been impressed by this man.

[Towarish]

Dakota Meyer appeared on 60 minutes last week.

http://www.wkyt.com/news/headlines/D...8.html?ref=248

anyone who saw this will have been impressed by this man.

I have seen it.
What a humble and down to the earth guy.
He has my utmost respect.

Here's a link to the inteview.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?...ain;contentAux

Cheers,
Philipp