Above And Beyond The Call Of Duty

Sergeant Dakota Meyer is the first living Marine to earn the Medal of Honor in the war on terror:.

In the course of six hours [after an ambush in Afghanistan in September of 2009], survivors said, Corporal Meyer and his driver, Staff Sgt. Juan J. Rodriguez-Chavez, led five fights into the ravine toward Ganjigal. Four times they helped recover wounded men, first Afghans who were pinned down and later Americans similarly trapped.

After the corporal freed Captain Swenson, the captain joined him in the fighting while an Army platoon nearby declined to help. On the last trip they recovered the remains of three Marines and a Navy corpsman. By then, according to the Marine Corps’ account of the fight, Corporal Meyer had killed eight Taliban fighters and stood up to several dozen more. (A fifth American later died of wounds suffered in the ravine.)

“Dakota later confessed,” the president said, of the fighting in Ganjigal, “I didn’t think I was going to die. I knew I was.”

The key criterion for the Medal of Honor is heroism “above and beyond the call of duty”.  That’s a phrase the world of business – and Hollywood, naturally – have devalued to the point of meaninglessness – for civilians, anyway.

It means doing things that are far, far beyond what one is ordered, or reasonably expected, to do.

The sort of thing that makes a sergeant deserve salutes from four star generals.

4 thoughts on “Above And Beyond The Call Of Duty

  1. The backstory to Cpl Meyer’s incredible bravery is that it might not have been necessary but for the idiotic rules of engagement and their interpretation by superiors, leaving an ambushed force unprotected by air and artillery cover because it might endanger the “civilians” providing cover for the enemy. The punishment for that incompetence won’t bring back the lost.

  2. Check his sleeve: three up is a Sergeant. He was a Corporal at the time of the incident, since promoted.

    One quibble with the NYT story saying “President Obama AWARDED the . . . .” I think he only PRESENTED it. The decision to award the medal was made by Congress.

    Notice this Marine also is wearing a Purple Heart and a Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Valor pip, which the story didn’t bother to mention. Plainly, this incident wasn’t the first time this young man stepped up.
    .

  3. It is indeed very interesting that Sergeant Dakota Meyer went AGAINST standing orders, risking court marshall (sp?). I wonder when MSM-DFL will address this politically charged angle… Nah, who am I kidding.

  4. It’s a shame that arrogant, pompous creep had to touch the medal. It’s not degraded, but it could use some disinfectant.

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