Marine hero Dakota Meyer launches new blog
March 22nd, 2012 | Ganjgal Medal of Honor Veterans | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Dakota Meyer posted this photograph to his new blog after sustaining a cheek wound while assisting in tornado relief in his native Kentucky. (Courtesy Actions Not Words)
Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer has had a busy year since receiving the nation’s highest valor award in a ceremony at the White House in September.
Mostly, his work has focused on public speaking appearances and raising money for the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation. However, he’s also become perhaps the first Medal of Honor recipient to actively engage the public on social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter.
On top of that, he’s now added a blog outlining some of his work. “Actions Not Words” was launched March 16, and has been used since to highlight tornado relief work in which he and others have participated in West Liberty, Ky.
The photograph above shows Meyer after he “almost lost my head to a tree limb” that crashed into the cab of his Bobcat earthmover during relief work, he wrote this week. The sight is about 180 miles from his hometown of Greensburg.
Meyer, now a sergeant in the Individual Ready Reserve, is credited with charging into an open kill zone multiple times on Sept. 8, 2009, in Ganjgal, Afghanistan, in an attempt to save four missing members of his embedded training team.
I’ve reached out to Meyer to get his thoughts on launching the blog and the sights in West Liberty. I’ll add more here soon if I hear from him.
Dakota Meyer’s Medal of Honor saga continues
December 13th, 2011 | Ganjgal Medal of Honor | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Sgt. Dakota Meyer stands in the White House after being presented the Medal of Honor in September. (Associated Press photo)
Sgt. Dakota Meyer was presented the Medal of Honor in September, and it was hard to not get swept away in the excitement.
Hundreds of people packed the East Room in the White House as President Obama hung the award around his neck. Millions more watched the ceremony on TV.
And at the center of it all was a painful situation that will be difficult for families connected to the ambush in which Meyer’s heroism was honored to ever accept.
I’ve written at great length about the Sept. 8, 2009, ambush in Ganjgal, Afghanistan, so there’s no reason to cover the same ground again (the most recent piece posted here). Still, it’s interesting to see various media outlets keep the story alive with fresh coverage, more than two years after the fact.
Several stories appeared over the weekend about Meyer, Ganjgal and where everything stands.
The Buffalo News, for example, focused on the attack from the perspective of Gunnery Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, a mentor of Meyer’s who died in the battle. Kenefick attended high school in Williamsville, N.Y., and will always be considered a local hero there.
The San Antonio Express-News, meanwhile, has a well done piece highlighting what Meyer has been up to recently — including information about his recently filed lawsuit against BAE Systems, his former employer.
A number of people have asked me my opinion on the suit, aware of the amount of time I spent covering Meyer and the aftermath of the ambush.
I’ll say this much: If BAE Systems wasn’t aware that Meyer would express his opinion loudly and clearly while working for them, they probably weren’t paying attention before they hired him. Meyer doesn’t suffer fools, and I’ve never known him to shy away from saying what he really thinks. Anyone else I’ve met who knows him in any capacity is quick to say that, too.
It’s for this reason that it wasn’t surprising to see Meyer insert himself in the presidential race, either. He joined four other veterans in recent video endorsing Texas Gov. Rick Perry as the next commander in chief:
Meyer seems well aware of the standing the Medal of Honor gives him, and he’s using it in a variety of ways. Notably, the Express-News reports that Meyer has now raised $350,000 toward his $1 million Dakota Meyer Scholarship Challenge to America. The money will benefit the children of wounded warriors through the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.
Dakota Meyer jokes with David Letterman
September 23rd, 2011 | Awards Ganjgal Pop culture | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Dakota Meyer appeared on “Late Show with David Letterman” Thursday night, and thing got loose pretty quickly. You’ve got to love “greasing the Bobcat” jokes, in particular:
For what it’s worth, it appears Meyer is still laughing about the appearance. He posted the following message on Twitter this morning:
The full episode is available here.
Thoughts on the ’60 Minutes’ piece with Dakota Meyer
September 19th, 2011 | Afghanistan Awards Ganjgal Washington | Posted by Dan Lamothe
President Obama presents Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at the White House on Sept. 15. (Photo by Rob Curtis/Staff)
Last night, the messy background behind Sgt. Dakota Meyer’s Medal of Honor was reintroduced to the nation.
In a 15-minute piece on “60 Minutes,” CBS reporter David Martin outlined what went wrong in the six-hour battle in Ganjgal, Afghanistan, that led to Meyer taking his life in his hands on Sept. 8, 2009, in an attempt to save as many Afghan and American forces as he could from the teeth of a well planned ambush.
The clip is up here:
Some of the details reported last night will be common knowledge to those who have tracked Ganjgal, but there were some new details.
The Army Center for Lessons Learned training video of the account had not been widely distributed, for example. CBS also tracked down retired Col. Richard Hooker, one of the two officers who investigated the leadership failures that played a key role in what went wrong. Meyer himself also described what happened with refreshing candor, as painful as it is.
Readers of Marine Corps Times, Bing West’s “The Wrong War,” and some of McClatchy reporter Jonathan Landay’s initial reporting on the battle will know much more about the failures and frustration that day, however.
Since late 2009, I’ve actually written four Marine Corps Times cover stories that focused heavily on Ganjgal (note: I’ve linked them below), along with about 20 other shorter pieces.
There’s always another thread to pull on with the story. What about the reprimands? What about awards that are still pending? It’s a messy situation, and it still isn’t all resolved.
Martin’s piece last night does the story — and the families involved — a great service. It elevates Ganjgal’s profile yet again, adding in a lot of things that didn’t come up last week when President Obama awarded Meyer the nation’s top valor award.
Already today, The Associated Press has jumped on the story, leveraging comments that Gold Star family members Susan Price and Charlene Westbrook made on “60 Minutes.” They’ve shared their thoughts before, but this time it’s with a recently awarded Medal of Honor in the national consciousness.
It’s hard to say what’s next. Already, the Battle of Ganjgal has become a signature moment in the Afghanistan war, and that’s without considering the Medal of Honor case pending for Will Swenson, the Army captain who assisted Meyer in bringing home the bodies of four Americans killed in the battle.
If Swenson receives the award, it’d mark the first time since 1993′s Battle of Mogadishu that two service members receive the Medal of Honor for actions in the same fight. In yet another way, Ganjgal would become Afghanistan’s “Blackhawk Down.”
We’re watching history unfold before our eyes. It’s just shame it has to be so painful.
Previous Marine Corps Times cover stories on Ganjgal
– Families outraged over engagement restrictions
– Report: Army denied aid to team under fire
– Heroism in ambush may yield top valor awards
– MoH nominee says he does not feel like a hero
More on Dakota Meyer’s beer summit with Obama
September 15th, 2011 | Awards Ganjgal Washington | Posted by Dan Lamothe
UPDATED: A White House spokesman tells Marine Corps Times that the beer shared by Obama and Meyer was home-brewed there. It’s called White House Honey Blonde Ale. That’s pretty sweet.
President Obama enjoys a beer Wednesday outside the Oval Office with Dakota Meyer. The president will present Meyer, a sergeant in the Individual Ready Reserve, with the Medal of Honor on Thursday. (White House photo by Pete Souza)
By now, you’ve seen the photo above. It’s President Obama having a beer yesterday with Dakota Meyer, who will become today the first living Marine in 38 years to receive the Medal of Honor.
The idea was reportedly Dakota’s. When the president’s staff called Meyer over the weekend in advance of today’s ceremony, the Marine asked if he could have a beer with Obama, White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a tweet last night. The president invited Meyer yesterday.
During the Beer Summit in 2009, the guests drank Red Stripe and Blue Moon, while the president had Bud Lite. Based on the photograph, it appears they may have had Bud Lite yesterday, too. I’ve inquired with a few sources to see if we can clear that up. Inquiring minds want to know, and all.
Dakota Meyer: The first Medal of Honor social networker?
September 14th, 2011 | Awards Ganjgal | Posted by Dan Lamothe
President Obama will award the Medal of Honor tomorrow afternoon to Dakota Meyer, the first living Marine in 38 years to receive the nation’s top valor award.
For many, the ceremony is heavily anticipated. There are many people still recovering from the scars created in Ganjgal, Afghanistan, on Sept. 8, 2009, when the heroism of Meyer and others prevented an awful situation from becoming even worse. As it was, the battle led to the death of five U.S. service members and at least eight Afghan troops.
Meyer already is in Washington, and appeared Tuesday night at the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation’s 2011 ceremony to announce the creation of the Sergeant Dakota Meyer Scholarship Initiative. It’s a push to raise $1 million to help the children of wounded Marines get through school.
Meyer mentioned the effort when I interviewed him last month in Kentucky for this feature, but the details were still a bit fuzzy. They’re crystal-clear now, though. In the last week, he even has backed the launch of dakotameyer.com, which outlines the push and what it means to him.
To propel the initiative, Meyer also has embarked on an apparent first: taking to social networking websites as a living Medal of Honor recipient. There’s a Facebook fan page, which includes announcement and links to media coverage. There’s also a Twitter page, which he suggested yesterday that his Facebook fans follow.
It’s all a long way from where Meyer was a year ago, when he was hesistant to discuss the awful details of what happened in Ganjgal. The reason appears to be simple, based on his website:
“I chose to partner with the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation on this initiative because of our common mission of supporting Marines and Navy Corpsmen families. Education paves the path for our future, and the money we raise will lead to a brighter future for the sons and daughters of many Marines.”
Expect more appearances in the future. Among the first: He’ll be throwing out the opening pitch at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 20.
Video: Marine Corps Times interviews Dakota Meyer, Medal of Honor recipient
August 19th, 2011 | Awards Ganjgal | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Dakota Meyer on his grandparents' farm in Greensburg, Ky., on Aug. 16. (Photo by Chris Maddaloni/Staff)
GREENSBURG, Ky. — It has been a long journey.
Dakota Meyer will receive the Medal of Honor on Sept. 15, two years after he braved enemy fire multiple times in Afghanistan in attempt to save fellow U.S. service members in Ganjgal, Afghanistan. He made it out of the valley alive, and they didn’t. It’s a tough situation to digest.
Marine Corps Times readers know the story well by now — various aspects of it have led me to write three cover stories since early last year, including a profile on Meyer.
With the White House announcement now official, however, I made my way down to Meyer’s hometown this week with staff photographer Chris Maddaloni.
We met him at his grandparents’ farm Tuesday in this rural town of 2,500 people, sitting in their living room to discuss the battle, its aftermath and how he handles all the attention. An excerpt of the interview is available here:
We’ll have a lot more in next week’s print edition of Marine Corps Times, but I thought it was worth sharing some personal observations here.
Meyer has taken the time to do at least 20 interviews since the White House’s announcement — a heavy workload that must be both monotonous and exhausting. Still, he sits dutifully, answering questions from reporters — some of whom clearly haven’t done their research and ask dumb questions, based on a quick Google search.
Meyer still loves to crack jokes, and clearly has a great relationship with his grandparents, Dwight and Jean Meyer. Married 58 years, they’re planning to fly to Washington for the ceremony. They proudly shared their recollection of the Korean War, which Dwight served in as a Marine. His haircut is still squared away, snow-white hair and all.
Setting the record straight on Dakota Meyer, Medal of Honor recipient-to-be
July 26th, 2011 | Awards Ganjgal Leadership | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Dakota Meyer, photographed at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., in November. (Photo by Rob Curtis/Staff)
With the dust starting to settle, it’s time to set the record straight about Dakota Meyer, who will become the first living Marine to receive the Medal of Honor in decades.
As someone who has covered the fallout of the Sept. 8, 2009, ambush in Gangjal, Afghanistan, since days after it occurred, I’ve noticed a variety of inaccuracies work their way into stories about the incident, Meyer’s service and the Medal of Honor process. Many of them cite my story last week that confirmed the award decision had been made, so it seems fair for to correct the record.
Let’s look at a few inaccuracies:
Meyer will be the first living Marine in 41 years to receive the Medal of Honor.
That’s a falsehood, and since it was reported by the Associated Press, it has been appeared in dozens, if not hundreds, of news accounts.
I reported last week that Meyer would be the first living Marine recipient of the award since now-retired Sgt. Maj. Allan Kellogg received the medal for actions for 41 years ago in Vietnam. I assume that’s where the 41-year figure comes from, but there’s nuance there that can’t be left out.
It’s true that Kellogg was honored for valor 41 years ago on March 11, 1970, but he received the medal from President Nixon at the White House on Oct 15, 1973. That means it has been about 38 years since the last living recipient received the Medal of Honor.
Meyer acted as a sniper in the battle.
Meyer was an infantry rifleman in the Corps, and trained as scout sniper, too. During the Battle of Ganjgal, however, he was serving as a member of an embedded training team, and never functioned as a sniper. There were snipers providing overwatch during the battle, but they were with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, out of Fort Drum, N.Y.
On a related note, some media accounts said Meyer was in Afghanistan at the time with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines. As Marine Corps Times previously reported, Meyer was with 3/3 before his deployment in 2009, but volunteered for the training team assignment instead of deploying to Iraq for a second time.
Meyer currently lives in Austin, Texas.
I’ll take the heat for this one. In Marine Corps Times’ initial story posted last week, I reported that Meyer lived in Austin. Meyer shared that detail with me in April, but subsequently moved back to his hometown of Greensburg, Ky., a few months later. He couldn’t be reached for comment last week, but I have subsequently verified and corrected our initial story. The first report led to confusion for some Texas news outlets.
Meyer was a sergeant in the battle.
Some media outlets have reported that Meyer was a sergeant in the battle, while others say he was a corporal.
The truth is, he was a corporal at the time, and left active-duty service as one in June 2010. He has subsequently been promoted to sergeant while in the Individual Ready Reserve, an organization in which Marines can be called back to active-duty service, but rarely are. He wore sergeant’s stripes at the Marine Corps Birthday Ball last year.
Behind the Cover: An exclusive interview with Dakota Meyer, Medal of Honor nominee
November 15th, 2010 | Afghanistan Behind the Cover Ganjgal | Posted by Dan Lamothe
By now, many Marine Corps Times readers have read the news that the service has recommended that a former Marine corporal receive the Medal of Honor for valor last year in eastern Afghanistan.
It’s a story that we first broke last Monday online, citing a Marine source with knowledge of the awards process. It was subsequently confirmed by other Marine sources last week.
The circumstances of the case should make it no surprise that former Cpl. Dakota Meyer, 22, is hesitant to discuss his actions.
As we first outlined in a cover story in July, he is credited with running into a kill zone on foot to find four missing Marines, who had been pinned down and under fire by insurgents for hours in an early-morning ambush on Sept. 8, 2009. He and a staff sergeant already had been turned back twice under heavy fire while trying to get to the Marines in a Humvee. After helicopter pilots said the fighting on the ground was too fierce to get to the pinned down team, Meyer went in alone, uncertain whether they were alive.
He found them dead and bloody in a ditch. Their weapons and radios were missing, and they had been stripped of their body armor, according to military documents obtained by Marine Corps Times.
For the first time since that ordeal, Meyer agreed last week to discuss how he has coped with the incident, what life is like for him now and how he remembers his friends, who gave the ultimate sacrifice. He is uncomfortable with the attention, but said if he can keep the memory of his fellow Marines alive, it’s worth it.
This is Dakota Meyer’s story, shared respectfully as he chooses to tell it now. A small portion of his time with Marine Corps Times was recorded here, while he visited friends at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., last week:
One year later, remembering Ganjgal, Afghanistan
September 8th, 2010 | Afghanistan Ganjgal Infantry | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Cpl. Dakota Meyer, second from right, charged into a kill zone on foot to save his buddies in Ganjgal, Afghanistan, including (from left to right) Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, 1st Lt. Michael Johnson and Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class James Layton. Meyer found all three of them dead, along with Gunnery Sgt. Edwin Johnson and an Afghan soldier. (Photo courtesy Brent Layton)
One year ago today, a group of Marines, U.S. soldiers and Afghan security forces were pinned down in a kill zone near Ganjgal, Afghanistan, a remote village in the unforgiving, mountainous terrain of Kunar province.
At this point, the basic details of what occurred that day are well known. Repeatedly denied air support and artillery by officers at a nearby forward operating base, they were left to fend for themselves against more than 100 well-entrenched insurgent fighters.
Three Marines and a Navy corpsman were killed on the battlefield, and a U.S. soldier died Oct. 7, 2009, from medical complications that stemmed from him sustaining a neck wound in the battle. An already-wounded Marine corporal, Dakota Meyer, charged into the kill zone to retrieve the bodies of his four buddies, causing some to speculate he deserves consideration for the Medal of Honor.
This blog post isn’t about what happened or who could have prevented it, though. No, this post is about those lost, and the proud, grieving families they left behind.
Over the last year, I’ve grown a friendship with and immense respect for several of those families as I’ve covered what occurred for Marine Corps Times. They’ve done everything they can to find positives in their losses. Many of them plan to meet this weekend in Williamsville, N.Y., to mourn together in person for the first time, and I’m honored to say they’ve asked me to attend. At their request, I’m doing so. If they want me there, it’s the least I can do.
Again, a respectful salute to the following:
- 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, killed in action, Sept. 8, 2009
- Gunnery Sgt. Edwin Johnson, KIA, Sept 8, 2009
- Gunnery Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, KIA, Sept. 8, 2009
- Hospitalman 3rd Class James Layton, KIA, Sept. 8, 2009
- Army Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Westbrook, who died Oct. 7 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington
I’d like to close with a message from Charlene Westbrook, Ken’s wife. She posted the following to Facebook this morning, and asked that it be shared:
A year ago today Ken was wounded in an ambush in Afghanistan on September 8, 2009. For the next month after we went through so much pain and heartache with his declining health at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It was an experience I will never forget and something I do not wish any military family to go through. So from today on and up to the anniversary of his death, October 7 I would like you all to invite your friends to join his remembrance page to honor his life. To say thank you to a career soldier who loved his family and country. To let us know he will never be forgotten…
Char~