What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
President Obama awards the Medal of Honor to Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer today. If you haven't, you simply must read Bing West's account in the Wall Street Journal of the horrific battle and amazing bravery Meyer demonstrated. The story involves abandonment up the change of the command and may infuriate you, but it will also make you proud of men such as Meyer. The piece ends:
Men do not suddenly acquire unshakable determination to face almost certain death. At the age of four, young Dakota wanted to drive the old tractor on the family farm in Kentucky. His father told him he had to be old enough to turn the hand crank. An hour later, the tractor roared to life—Dakota had repeatedly jumped from the tractor hood onto the crank until it turned over. When he was five, he solemnly assured his grandmother that he would guard her against robbers. A rugged athlete in high school, he also tutored autistic students. He volunteered for Afghanistan as his second combat tour and risked death to rescue Afghans as well as Americans.
Cpl. Meyer set the example, but he could not have succeeded alone. Others of like mind joined him. Their shared tenacity wasn't rooted solely in fighting for their fellow squad members. In fact, the core group at the end of the fight didn't know each other that well. Capt. Swenson had only a passing acquaintance with Cpl. Meyer, while Lt. Fabayo and Sgt. Rodriquez-Chavez lived at a different base.
Today's ceremony should be a source of pride for all Americans, because Ganjigal wasn't about one warrior. Inside that village on the Pakistan border, the defining values of America—individual initiative, comradeship, valor and determination to prevail despite any odds—were on display.
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Sep '11
Re: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
Alas, your link to the story is behind the WSJ pay wall. No WSJ subscription, no story to see.
Anyplace else to learn more about this story?
Jun '10
Re: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
Google the title of the WSJ story.
Edited on Sep 15, 2011 at 10:39amRe: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
John, here is a link to some good info on Meyer's heroism, though he would surely reject that description. The terms I would use to described the officers who denied Meyer's fellow soldiers the air and artillery support they needed would not fit within our Code of Conduct. Meyer filled in for the gap in leadership and support, and earned the thanks of a nation. God bless him.
Edited on Sep 15, 2011 at 7:59amApr '11
Re: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
John Murdoch: Alas, your link to the story is behind the WSJ pay wall. No WSJ subscription, no story to see.
Anyplace else to learn more about this story? · Sep 15 at 7:39am
This link allowed me to read the whole story.
Re: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
"Back at the valley's entrance, 21-year-old Cpl. Meyer listened to radio calls for artillery fire that were refused by officers at higher headquarters due to concern for endangering villagers."
Makes my blood boil. My hunch is that the "root cause" liberals are usually so fond of elaborating will turn out to be our labyrinthine rules-of-engagement. This sort of over-regulation is the military equivalent of EPA's penchant for tying the hands of domestic entrepreneurs. But in the military case, the consequences are lethal.
God bless Marine Cpl. Dakota Meyer.
May '10
Re: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
Charlotte, That link also goes to the partial story and a solicitation to subscribe. Anyone else have a suggestion?
Jul '10
Re: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
Perhaps the President will be able to remember this one's name.
May '10
Re: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
It takes nothing away from Cpl. Meyer's heroism to note that Army Capt. Swenson went unrecognized until yesterday. Speculation is that he was denied any recognition because of his criticism of Army brass and rules of engagement because his repeated calls for artillery support went unheeded.
http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/09/military-medal-of-honor-william-swenson-report-ganjgal-hero-recommended-091411w/
As a dad with one son in Afghanistan today, and another likely to deploy by year's end, would someone please explain why we are still there? Why we didn't simply go in with a hard and fast punitive expedition in 2001, sternly caution whoever was left that they did not want us back, then pulled out?
Re: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
First off, thank you to your sons for their service. Secondly, given we are in Afghanistan, why don't we insist on rules-of-engagement appropriate to prosecuting a war? If the enemy figure out, as they have, that our rules prohibit close air support or artillery fire when combat occurs near civilians then they will take steps, and have, to ensure that all decisive engagements occur in locations calculated to maximize collateral damage. With our superiority in technology and materiel neutralized, the advantage swings to the Taliban, who have in-depth local knowledge and the initiative.
This fight should not be a near-run thing. If Taliban fighters use a village as cover to ambush our troops, then it becomes a military target during that engagement. Their choice, not ours.
Edited on Sep 15, 2011 at 4:15pmAug '10
Re: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
In the first Gulf War we lost a B-52 off of Diego Garcia due to multiple equipment failures. The bad part of the story is that we lost 3 of the 6 crewmembers onboard due to the incompetence of the Aircraft Commander. He was busted back to Co-Pilot and eventually worked his way back up to Evaluator Pilot (Pilot, Instructor Pilot, Evaluator Pilot is the normal progression).
Contrast this with the USAF's perspective on alcohol-related incidents (zero-tolerance - you are given an evaluation that guarantees you will not be promoted- might as well leave.) Simply - kill half your crew due to incompetence - survive to retirement. Drink and drive (and hurt no one) get booted.
In Cpl Meyer's case, the 'powers that be' denied the troops on the ground fire support that might have saved American lives - and they get letters of reprimand. They should be shot.
Our military leaders aren't; they are the products of the managerial takeover post Vietnam and need to be purged - in every sense of the word.
Edited on Sep 15, 2011 at 5:40pmAug '10
Re: What a Story Behind Today's Medal of Honor Recipient
My reaction to this story is both deep admiration for Meyer and Rodriguez-Chavez and disgust that such men are being squandered in a pointless nation-building effort.
Why were the marines in this village in the first place? Because the villagers asked their help in repairing a mosque as a ruse to draw them into an ambush.
Why was it necessary to extract men under fire? Because the ROE designed to protect these deceitful villagers refused artillery support.
If I never hear the phrase "civil affairs officer" again it will be too soon.
We have no business in a country that betrays our soldiers, embezzles our money, treats apostasy as a capital crime, and has heroin as its only export. Leave them to the savagery they so clearly desire so long as they keep it to themselves. If they bother us again we can turn their country into 250,000 square miles of glass.