Rotorhead
07-26-2011, 8:18pm
Marine Afghanistan Vet to Receive MoH (http://www.military.com/news/article/marine-afghanistan-vet-to-receive-moh.html?ESRC=marine.nl)
For the first time since the Vietnam War a living Marine will be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Former Cpl. Dakota Meyer will receive the nation's highest military award for actions on Sept. 8, 2008, in a small Afghan village near the border of Pakistan, according to a report July 19 on the website of Leatherneck, a publication of the Marine Corps Association.
Meyer, who left the Marine Corps in June 2010, was nominated for the medal after risking his life to race into the kill zone of a firefight to find three missing Marines and a Navy corpsman, Marine Corps Times reported earlier today after confirming the Leatherneck report.
The four men were already dead and stripped of their gear and equipment, according to the report. Along with friendly Afghan soldiers Meyer got the bodies away from the combat area where they could be flown out.
That a living Marine was in line for the Medal of Honor has been known since last November, when then-Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Conway announced during a visit to Camp Pendleton, Calif., that one had been nominated.
Meyer’s actions occurred during the controversial battle near the village of Ganjgal, Afghanistan, where Meyer was serving as part of a joint embedded training team to mentor Afghan forces. His patrol was ambushed by a large insurgent force which rained down AK-47 and RPG fire on the training team.
Read more about the Ganjgal battle at Defense Tech.
A reporter embedded with the unit at the time told of desperate calls for close air or artillery support that never came. Just a few days after the attack, an angry Meyer was quoted as saying that the commanders’ decision not to order artillery support “basically screwed our guys over. They expect us to bring stuff to the fight, and [the commanders] didn’t give it to us.”
Investigators later reprimanded three Army officers for their conduct in the bloody ambush.
Two Marines with Meyer on Sept. 8 were awarded the Navy Cross -- after the Medal of Honor the highest award for valor a Marine can be awarded. Capt. Ademola Fabayo and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez were presented the medals for helping retrieve the bodies.
The last Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor was Cpl. Jason Dunham, who was presented the medal posthumously for sacrificing himself to save the lives of two other Marines in Karbala, Iraq. Dunham used his helmet and body to cover a grenade dropped by an insurgent that had attacked him at a checkpoint.
The last living Marine to be awarded the medal was Sgt. Maj. Allan J. Kellogg, who received the award for combat actions on March 11, 1970, in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam.
Stars and Stripes contributed to this report.
Semper Fidelis Cpl. Meyer!
For the first time since the Vietnam War a living Marine will be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Former Cpl. Dakota Meyer will receive the nation's highest military award for actions on Sept. 8, 2008, in a small Afghan village near the border of Pakistan, according to a report July 19 on the website of Leatherneck, a publication of the Marine Corps Association.
Meyer, who left the Marine Corps in June 2010, was nominated for the medal after risking his life to race into the kill zone of a firefight to find three missing Marines and a Navy corpsman, Marine Corps Times reported earlier today after confirming the Leatherneck report.
The four men were already dead and stripped of their gear and equipment, according to the report. Along with friendly Afghan soldiers Meyer got the bodies away from the combat area where they could be flown out.
That a living Marine was in line for the Medal of Honor has been known since last November, when then-Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Conway announced during a visit to Camp Pendleton, Calif., that one had been nominated.
Meyer’s actions occurred during the controversial battle near the village of Ganjgal, Afghanistan, where Meyer was serving as part of a joint embedded training team to mentor Afghan forces. His patrol was ambushed by a large insurgent force which rained down AK-47 and RPG fire on the training team.
Read more about the Ganjgal battle at Defense Tech.
A reporter embedded with the unit at the time told of desperate calls for close air or artillery support that never came. Just a few days after the attack, an angry Meyer was quoted as saying that the commanders’ decision not to order artillery support “basically screwed our guys over. They expect us to bring stuff to the fight, and [the commanders] didn’t give it to us.”
Investigators later reprimanded three Army officers for their conduct in the bloody ambush.
Two Marines with Meyer on Sept. 8 were awarded the Navy Cross -- after the Medal of Honor the highest award for valor a Marine can be awarded. Capt. Ademola Fabayo and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez were presented the medals for helping retrieve the bodies.
The last Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor was Cpl. Jason Dunham, who was presented the medal posthumously for sacrificing himself to save the lives of two other Marines in Karbala, Iraq. Dunham used his helmet and body to cover a grenade dropped by an insurgent that had attacked him at a checkpoint.
The last living Marine to be awarded the medal was Sgt. Maj. Allan J. Kellogg, who received the award for combat actions on March 11, 1970, in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam.
Stars and Stripes contributed to this report.
Semper Fidelis Cpl. Meyer!