Sgt Dakota Meyer, USMC Living Medal of Honor Awardee

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DUG EAGLE FORD OCT 14-16, 2012

12:00 pm

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. Sgt. Dakota Meyer, Medal of Honor Recipient, U.S. Marine Corps (ret'd)

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

Marine Carries Amputee Across Tri Finish Line

US Marine Carries 11 Yr Old Amputee Across Triathlon Finish Line

http://www.newsherald.com/news/health/triathlon-triumph-1.27120?tc=cr full story here

VALPARAISO — Ben Baltz wasn’t excited about competing in yet another triathlon last weekend.

It was his third in the last few months. While he likes bicycling, running isn’t his favorite activity, especially if he can’t win doing it.

The 11-year-old had completed the 150-yard swim and three-mile bike ride in Sunday’s Sea Turtle Tri on Pensacola Beach, but about a half-mile into the run, he knew something was wrong.  

Marine Pfc. Matthew Morgan carries Ben Baltz across the finish line at the Sea Turtle Tri on Pensacola Beach

“It (the leg) wobbles,” Ben said Wednesday at his home in Valparaiso.

Moments later, the screws on his prosthetic leg came loose and he went down.

What happened next, though, has captured the attention of the nation.

In the moments Ben was debating whether he could hop or maybe crawl the rest of the mile, a man named Matthew Morgan, a Marine who had volunteered to help at the youth event, stepped in.

“(Morgan said) ‘You need help?’ and I said, ‘Sure,’ and he picked me up and carried me,” Ben said.

For the next half mile, Ben held onto Pfc. Morgan with one arm and his prosthetic leg with the other.

Ben said he and Morgan didn’t really speak after their first exchange, but more Marines gathered around and sang a cadence.

As they reached the end and the crowd started roaring, Ben said he felt grateful for the help, but a little frustrated and embarrassed that he couldn’t complete the course on his own. 

Freedom of movement is one thing Ben has gotten used to since he was fitted with a prosthetic leg in the summer of 2009. His lower right leg was removed the year before when he was 6 because of a type of bone cancer called osteosarcoma.

Until Sunday, his most spectacular leg malfunction came during a soccer game that he finished by taping it together with duct tape.

As news of his latest malfunction spreads, first on CNN’s website and then elsewhere, Ben remains mystified about why everyone is so interested in talking to him, especially since he didn’t finish the race on his own.

 “He has no idea what the big deal is,” his mother Kim Baltz said with a laugh. “He honestly does not. He thinks it’s the Marines.”

According to John Murray, one of the co-founders of Team MPI, which organized the Sea Turtle Tri and helps athletes train for triathlons, no one even knew what had happened to Ben until an announcer spotted him and told the crowd.

“It was kind of a build-up in a way as more and more people became aware,” said Murray, who was standing at the finish line with his wife. “There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. … I was just overcome by emotion.”

Ben’s father, JC, seems to be having the easiest time processing Ben’s skyrocket to fame. He says a shared moment just before the race seemed to almost foreshadow his son and the Marine inspiring a nation with their actions.

JC and Ben were on the beach tossing a football when JC pulled out the bag of Dove dark chocolate candies he always carries and offered his son a piece. 

Never one to turn down candy, the STEMM Middle School sixth-grader accepted the chocolate and found an inspirational message inside the wrapper his father had never seen before, despite constantly having it on hand.  

It read, “You’re exactly where you need to be.”

US Marine Creates "Heroes" Vodka

US Marine Veteran Creates "Heroes" Vodka

 Sitting at Local VFW  

written by Bill Briggs NBC News Contributor

Heroes Vodka • American-Made • Owned by a U.S. Veteran

heroesvodka.com/

                   

  

                  

Travis McVey, USMC Veteran,
Continues to Receive Spirits Awards

Between sampling and selling his first batch of Heroes Vodka, Marine veteran Travis McVey concocted a catchy marketing slogan.

“Some people drink to forget. We drink to remember,” McVey said in a phone interview this week, referring partly to two friends, Marine buddies killed in the line of duty.

“I was sitting at the VFW on (a recent) Memorial Day with some other veterans. I was looking at the bar,” McVey said. “I was thinking: No one has ever really marketed a veteran-owned spirit company. And what better name than ‘Heroes?’ Everybody has served, but the guys who didn’t come back are true heroes to me. I wanted to create a product that would be in honor of their service, something that people could raise their glass to and give a toast.” 

The first vodka made by a veteran for veterans hit stores last February in Tennessee, where McVey lives. For distribution, he partnered with Nashville-based Lipman Brothers. This fall, Heroes became available in six more states, including New York and Georgia, and the company plans to expand into New England and the Pacific Northwest. A portion of the profits will be used to help ex-service members, McVey said.

In addition to winning several spirit-industry taste awards for its self-described “slightly toasty and roasted” flavor, Heroes offers an intriguing business test case. Veteran entrepreneurs – McVey calls them “vetrepreneurs” – aim to tap an ultra-loyal, 22 million-member veteran community to shop their services or push their products, including: wild salmon, a "defensive driving" school, appliance repair, a barber shop and, now, vodka.

“Veterans are going to give me a first look” for their next vodka purchase, said McVey, 42. “But that’s also because veterans are known for their quality of service. It’s who we are, and how we’re trained. So, yeah, veterans will give another veteran a shot. That’s just what we do.”Veterans buy from veterans: That’s the hot saying in ex-military financial circles, particularly with hundreds of thousands of former service members unable to land jobs. That patriotic consumer base has convinced more than 3 million men and women who have served the country to launch small businesses, reports the National Veteran-Owned Business Association. The group uses a two-word logo and mantra: “Buy veteran.”

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/10/14323986-vodka-by-a-veteran-for-veterans-and-other-cocktail-lovers    For Complete Story....

Man Dies After Roach Eating Contest

Oct. 11, 2012...........UPDATE.................Acute Allergic Reaction suspected in Roach Eating suspects death.  Roaches are not toxic, However, they give off many allergens.

Ed Archibald Downing some BIG OLD NASTY ROACHES

Man DIES after ROACH Eating Contest

Ed Archibald, 32 Dead Roach Eater

A Florida man died Friday night after consuming "dozens of roaches and worms" during a contest held by a pet store, police report.

Edward Archbold, 32, collapsed after winning the repulsive contest at Ben Siegel Reptile Store. Archbold, who was competing for a free python, was stricken outside the Deerfield Beach business, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators reported that Archbold "wasn’t feeling well and began to regurgitate" shortly after the contest's conclusion. "He had consumed dozens of roaches and worms," a sheriff’s spokesman noted.

Archbold was pronounced dead after being transported to an area hospital. An autopsy was conducted, and the Broward County medical examiner is awaiting test results to determined Archbold's cause of death.

Archbold is pictured above in a mug shot taken in 2004, following his arrest for disorderly conduct and indecent exposure (for which he was convicted).

The roach-eating contest was part of the reptile store's October 5 "Midnight Madness" sale. Contestants had four minutes to devour the most discoid roaches, which can grow up to three inches long.

Discoid Roach (up to 3" long)

 "Oh yeah, any vomiting is an automatic DQ," the store cautioned in a Facebook post prior to the revolting competition.

Another promotional piece referred to the upcoming event as "the soon to be infamous 'Eat Bugs For Balls Contest.'" The python for which Archbold competed is known to curl up into a ball as a defensive reaction.

In a Facebook update yesterday, the store stated that, "Although we just met Eddie the night of the sale, we all liked him right away. All of us here at Ben Siegel Reptiles are sad that we will not get to know Eddie better, for in the short time we knew him, he was very well liked by all."

Asked about the python won by Archbold, the store reported on its Facebook page that, "The snake is being held in his name and is full property of his estate."