"Because of your honor, 36 men are alive today. Because of your courage, four fallen American heroes came home." President Obama
In partnership with Leading Authorities, Inc., the Club is pleased to host this special luncheon event.
Sergeant Dakota L. Meyer is a United States Marine Corps veteran and the recipient of the Medal of Honor, the military's highest honor, for his actions during the Battle of Ganjgal, which was part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Kunar province, Afghanistan. Meyer is the first living Marine to have received the medal since 1973 and one of the youngest. Humble and soft-spoken, Meyer insists that he is not a hero, and that any Marine would do the same thing.
On September 8, 2009, in a remote eastern Afghanistan province, three U.S. Marines, a U.S. Navy corpsman, and Afghan soldiers were missing after being ambushed by 50 insurgents, an attack which Meyer -- then a corporal -- and Staff Sergeant Juan Rodriguez-Chavez heard over the radio. Defying orders, Meyer told Rodriguez-Chavez that they were going into the "killing zone" to help. Rodriguez-Chavez jumped into a Humvee and took the wheel; Meyer manned the gun, and they headed into the area known to be inhabited by insurgents and under enemy fire.
Through five successive missions over the course of six hours, Meyer helped save the lives of 13 American and 23 Afghan troops. Meyer also found the bodies of the four missing men, and, with the help of some friendly Afghan soldiers, he moved the bodies to a safer area where they could be extracted. All told, Meyer evacuated 12 friendly, wounded troops and provided cover for another 24. He suffered shrapnel wounds to his arm, and, despite his heroic efforts, he did not expect to survive the battle. "I wasn't really thinking I could die, it was just a matter of when," said Meyer. "I never thought I was going to come out...[but] that's what Marines do." He was only 21 at the time.
During a ceremony on September 15, 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Meyer with the Medal of Honor. Obama stated that Meyer is incredibly down-to-earth, saying that when he tried to tell him that he would be receiving the award, Meyer didn't take the call. Meyer was working a new job in construction and asked the president to call him back another time. Obama jokingly recounted that Meyer said, "If I don't work, I don't get paid." The president called him back during his lunch break and thanked him for taking the call. "Dakota is the kind of guy who gets the job done," Obama stated. He and Meyer had talked over beers the day before the award ceremony. Meyer was also inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon and honored with a parade at Marine Corps Barracks in Washington, DC.
6 сен 2024
