Dakota Meyer, a Marine who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism within the Afghanistan Battle however later turned a pointy critic of the Biden administration over its chaotic withdrawal from that battle, has reenlisted within the army and can serve within the Marine Corps Reserve.
In a briefing with reporters Thursday earlier than the ceremony, Meyer stated he’s returning to army service after 15 years out of uniform as a result of he felt he “had extra to present.” He’s additionally near President Donald Trump’s protection secretary, Pete Hegseth, who administered the oath to Meyer on the Pentagon and hugged him afterward.
However Meyer stated he would chorus from politics whereas in uniform.
“The nice half about being within the reserves is I am nonetheless a citizen once I’m not on orders,” he stated. “Once I’m on orders I will comply clearly with no matter the usual is.”
Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor, the army’s highest honor, by then-President Barack Obama in 2011 for his heroics in Afghanistan when he charged 5 instances in a Humvee into heavy gunfire to rescue comrades below assault by Taliban insurgents.
On Sept. 8, 2009, Meyer was a part of a safety staff supporting a patrol transferring right into a village within the Ganjgal Valley. Immediately, the lights in a close-by village went out and gunfire erupted. About 50 Taliban insurgents on mountainsides and within the village had ambushed the patrol.
His actions in the course of the six-hour assault and firefight saved the lives of 36 individuals, each People and Afghans. He killed no less than eight Taliban insurgents. Firing from a gun turret on prime of a Humvee pushed by a fellow Marine, he supplied cowl for his staff, permitting many to flee seemingly dying.
4 American troopers died within the ambush: 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, 25, from Virginia Seashore, Virginia; Employees Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, 30, of Roswell, Georgia; Corpsman James Layton, 22, of Riverbank, California; and Edwin Wayne Johnson Jr., a 31-year-old gunnery sergeant from Columbus, Georgia. A fifth man, Military Sgt. Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, of Shiprock, New Mexico, died later from his wounds.
After leaving the army, Meyer remained within the highlight. In 2016 he married former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol, and so they had two kids.
He’s been outspoken in regards to the jailing of one other Marine — Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller — who criticized the Biden administration for the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan in social media posts whereas in uniform, which is a violation of army conduct.
Tara Copp is a Pentagon correspondent for the Related Press. She was beforehand Pentagon bureau chief for Sightline Media Group.
