12:00 pm
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Networking Luncheon and Keynote Speaker: Honoring America's Armed Forces
Sergeant Dakota L. Meyer is the first living marine to receive the Medal of Honor since 1973 and one of the youngest recipients ever. He addresses inspiration, motivation, courage, leadership and belief in oneself and doing what is right. Join him in celebrating how America's armed forces protect freedom and human rights around the world. |
SERGEANT DAKOTA MEYER, USMC
Medal of Honor Recipient
“Because of your honor, 36 men are alive today. Because of your courage four fallen American heroes came home.” President Obama
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. He addresses inspiration,
motivation, courage, leadership, believing in yourself, doing what is right, and what happened that
day in Afghanistan.
The Attack. 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.
The Award. 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.
Currently, Meyer is partnering with the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation to raise $1 million by
the Foundation’s 50th anniversary on May 28, 2012. He has also issued the “Dakota Meyer
Scholarship Challenge to America” to match his efforts and raise an additional $1 million to “honor
Marines by educating their children.”
Updated WMS 11/11
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