"I know that you've grappled with the grief of that day, that you have said that your efforts were somehow a failure because your teammates didn't come home," Obama told Dakota Meyer, who became the first living Marine to be recognized with the nation's highest military honor for actions in Afghanistan or Iraq.
"But, as your commander-in-chief, I want you to know it's quite the opposite. You did your duty above and beyond, and you kept the faith with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps that you love." "The award honors the men who gave their lives that day, and the men who were in that fight," Meyer said, according to a Marine newsletter. "I didn't do anything more than any other Marine would. I was put in an extraordinary circumstance, and I just did my job."
The incident began before dawn on September 8, 2009, as a patrol made up of Afghan forces and their American trainers were making their way on foot up a narrow valley in Kunar province to meet with elders in a village. Meyer was about a mile away when Taliban fighters ambushed the patrol, firing from three sides, Obama said. Meyer and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez could hear the ambush over the radio as the Taliban fighters unleashed a firestorm from nearby hills, Obama said.
Soon a number of men were killed and several Afghans and Americans were pinned down, including four members of Meyer's team, Obama said. "Four times, Dakota and Juan asked permission to go in; four times they were denied," Obama said. "It was, they were told, too dangerous."
But Meyer and Rodriguez-Chavez left their relatively safe location and jumped into a Humvee, with Meyer manning a gun in the turret, his body and head fully exposed to a rain of fire from AK-47s, machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, Obama said. As they reached wounded Afghan soldiers, Meyer jumped out and loaded them into the Humvee, then drove them back to safety, Obama said.
"Those who were there called it the most intense combat they had ever seen," the president said. For a second time, the men drove back into the hail of fire to pick up more wounded Afghans; when one gun jammed, Meyer and Rodriguez-Chavez switched to another vehicle, Obama said.
Description : File:Medal of Honor U.S.Army.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
Description : Medal of Honor Tier 1
Source : http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-15/politics/marine.medal.of.honor_1_afghan-soldiers-afghan-forces-taliban-fighters?_s=PM:POLITICS
