Marine Sergeant Dakota Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama. I feel small compared to this giant of a man. Here are the details of his heroism, taken from an article in the Washington Post:
Meyer was serving near a Taliban-held area around the village of Ganjgal when the power in the town suddenly went out and the valley lit up in a hail of gunfire and mortar rounds from Taliban fighters hiding in the hills. A patrol of Afghan and U.S. forces was pinned down.
Meyer was about a mile away but could hear the attack on the radio. He repeatedly asked his superiors for approval to go to the aid of the unit but was denied, Obama said.
The young corporal refused to sit out the battle. He and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez jumped in a Humvee — Chavez at the wheel and Meyer in the gun mount — and headed into the “killing zone,” as Obama called it.
Coming across some wounded Afghan allied fighters, the pair brought them to safety and headed back in. In all, the duo entered the battle zone five times, rescuing 23 Afghans and 13 Americans. They also extracted the bodies of four Americans who had been killed in the fighting.
Meyer suffered shrapnel wounds to his arm, Obama said.
The Obama administration has previously awarded the Medal of Honor to two other Afghan war veterans. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore A. Giunta, who received the award on Nov. 27, 2010, and Sgt. 1st Class Leroy A. Petry, who was honored at a White House ceremony last month.
According to conservative talk show host Mike Gallagher, Meyer also killed eight enemy combatants, which the article does not mention. He was 21 at the time, a kid from Kentucky serving in a remote region of eastern Afghanistan thousands of miles from the blue grass state. Now 23, he is working in construction. America is free because of men like him. Thank you, sir.
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