 |
 |
 |
 |
||
Publishing Corner: Indian Community: Science & Wonder Indian Heros: California Indian Art: CALIE Library: Academic Financial Aid: Tribal Governments: Indian Gaming: |
DAKOTA MEYER USMC
Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, Dakota Meyer will be the special guest speaker at the American Indian Veterans Association golf tournament fund-raiser Awards Banquet at the Soboba Springs Country Club on August 1, 2015. DOWNLOAD FLYER FOR MORE INFO. Dakota Meyer was born June 26, 1988 and raised in Columbia, Kentucky, the son of Felicia Gilliam and Michael Meyer. In 2006, after graduation from Green County High School, he enlisted in the Marine Corps at a recruiting station in Louisville, Kentucky and completed basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. Dakota Meyer in is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and the War in Afghanistan. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Ganjgal on September 8, 2009, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Meyer is the second youngest living Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, the third living recipient for either Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan and the first living Marine in 38 years to be so honored.
Meyer also requested that when he was honored, simultaneous commemorative services should be held at other associated locations to honor the memory of his colleagues who died or were mortally wounded during the ambush and his rescue attempts. The four Americans that died in the ambush were: 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, 25, of Virginia Beach, VA; Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, 30, of Roswell, GA; Gunnery Sgt. Edwin Wayne Johnson Jr., 31, of Columbus, GA; and Hospital Corpsman Third Class James R. Layton, 22, of Riverbank, CA. A fifth man, Army Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, of Shiprock, NM, later died from his wounds. On September 8, 2009, near the village of Ganjgal, Meyer learned that three Marines and a Navy corpsman, who were members of Meyer's squad and his friends, were missing after being ambushed by a group of insurgents. Under enemy fire, Meyer entered an area known to be inhabited by insurgents and eventually found the four missing servicemen dead and stripped of their weapons, body armor and radios. With the help of Afghan soldiers, he moved the bodies to a safer area where they could be extracted. On June 9, 2011, the Marine Corps announced that two other Marines on Meyer's team in Ganjgal would receive the Navy Cross, the second-highest award for valor a Marine can receive. Capt. Ademola D. Fabayo and Staff Sgt. Juan J. Rodriguez-Chavez were recognized for their roles in retrieving the bodies of the fallen Marines and corpsman. Before Meyer began searching for the missing servicemen on foot, Rodriguez-Chavez drove a gun truck into the kill zone with Fabayo manning the truck's machine gun. Meyer wrote a book about the Battle of Ganjgal, co-written with Bing West, titled Into the Fire: A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War and published on September 25, 2012. In the book, Meyer makes a case for Army Captain William D. Swenson to be awarded the Medal of Honor; Swenson had criticized Army officers at the nearby Forward Operating Base Joyce for not providing fire support, the resulting political fallout not conducive to awarding him the medal. Those same officers were later cited following a military investigation for "negligent" leadership leading "directly to the loss of life" on the battlefield. Swenson was awarded the Medal of Honor on October 15, 2013.
|
Meyer was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in a ceremony on September 15, 2011. When President Barack Obama's staff called Meyer to set up a time for the president to inform him that he was to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, Meyer was working at his construction job and asked them to call again during his lunch break, which they did.
CALIF INDIAN EDU NETWORK: AHMIUM.org | SDICENTER.org | APAPAS.com
—
WEB SITE DESIGN
www.calie.org COPYRIGHT 2008-Present • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED