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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – A day late, please listen to this remarkable veteran’s story.
Dakota Meyer served in Afghanistan in 2009 in Kunar province. His mission, to guard a motorpool that would be used to return to base after a group of soldiers returned from a village about a mile away. The soldiers were ambushed. Meyer and a second soldier took one of the vehicles, drove into the ambush, and tried to rescue four captured soldiers. Outnumbered, it was a suicide mission. The four will killed in action.
For his uncommon bravery, Dakota Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor, our highest military honor.
Transition to civilian life was not easy. He said the horrors of war haunted him for years.
Now 38, Dakota Meyer has reinlisted in the Marine Corps. He his the first Medal of Honor winner to return to active duty.
Another Marine asked “Do you think it’s still worth serving?” The Marine said he could make more money out of the service, and would always safely return to his family each night.
Meyer said yes, but the answer bothered him.
“I felt it was one of the most unbecoming things that I had ever said back to that crowd,” Meyer said, explaining that he was telling someone else to accept the sacrifices of continued service while he was free to return to civilian life.
“I told them that I would walk out of there and I would go about reenlisting, or I would never say that to anybody again.”
Today, Dakota Meyer is 38. He’s been assigned to a reconnaissance unit.
“I think sometimes it’s looked at as you’ve done your part, and I am wholeheartedly against that,” he said. “I believe that the only time you’ve done your part is when you’ve done all that you can.”
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