Ambush survivor up for Medal of Honor - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Ambush survivor up for Medal of Honor

The Marine Corps has recommended that a former corporal receive the Medal of Honor for braving a hail of enemy fire in September 2009 to pull the bodies of four U.S. troops from a kill zone in eastern Afghanistan, Marine Corps Times has learned.

Dakota Meyer, 22, of Greensburg, Ky., was recommended for the nation’s highest award for valor, according to a source with knowledge of the process, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Meyer could become the first living Marine recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. Only one Marine, Cpl. Jason Dunham, has received the award for actions in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he was honored posthumously after throwing himself on a grenade in Karabilah, Iraq, in 2004 to save the lives of fellow Marines.

Seven U.S. service members have received the Medal of Honor in the wars against terrorism, all posthumously. The White House announced in September that an eighth service member, Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, would become the first living recipient of the medal since Vietnam.

Meyer was recommended for his actions on Sept. 8, 2009, near the village of Ganjgal in Kunar province. He charged into a kill zone on foot and alone to find three missing Marines and a Navy corpsman who had been pinned down under enemy fire for hours by about 150 well-armed insurgents. Already wounded by shrapnel before braving enemy fire, he found them dead and stripped of their gear and weapons, and carried them out of the kill zone with the help of Afghan soldiers, according to military documents obtained by Marine Corps Times.

Reached for comment Monday, Meyer was unaware he has been recommended for the Medal of Honor, saying he does not feel like a hero and still dwells on what happened that day. He was a member of Embedded Training Team 2-8 training Afghan forces when the ambush occurred, and good friends with the troops he pulled from the kill zone. He left the Corps in June after his four-year contract with the service expired.

“Whatever comes out of it, it’s for those guys,” he said of the recommendation. “I feel like the furthest thing from a hero. I feel like I let my guys down because I didn’t bring them home alive.”

On Saturday, Commandant Gen. Jim Amos told reporters at Camp Pendleton, Calif., that the Corps’ last top officer, Gen. James Conway, made the recommendation shortly before retiring Oct. 22. Amos would not say who had been recommended.

“We have a nomination that General Conway signed and forwarded to the secretary of the Navy his last week as the commandant,” Amos said. “I read the citation; I read the whole paper. As you can imagine for something like that, we’re talking binders. I read it cover to cover, and it watered my eyes.”

Amos described the Marine as a “great, young courageous” man, and said it is “pretty exciting” to see a living recipient recommended.

A spokesman for Amos, Maj. Joseph Plenzler, declined to discuss the recommendation Monday, saying it is Marine Corps policy to handle deliberations over awards internally until the Defense Department makes an announcement. A spokeswoman for Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Capt. Beci Brenton, declined to comment.

If approved by Mabus, the nomination would be pushed to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. With his approval, it would go to President Obama. Traditionally, Marine Corps approval is considered the largest hurdle in the nomination process.

Abandoned on the battlefield

The recommendation adds a new layer to an incident that already was raw with emotion. The ambush made national headlines last year, after a McClatchy Newspapers journalist embedded with the training team, Jonathan Landay, reported that the troops were pinned down for hours without artillery and air support because it was denied by Army officers at a nearby operations center.

Killed in the battle were Gunnery Sgt. Edwin Johnson, 31; Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, 30, 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, 25; and Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class James Layton, 22. A U.S. soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Westbrook, 41, died Oct. 7, 2009, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington from medical complications tied to wounds he sustained in the attack. About a dozen Afghan soldiers in training with U.S. forces also were cut down by gunfire, according to military documents outlining the attack.

Army officials announced in February that “negligent” leadership at the battalion level contributed “directly to the loss of life” on the battlefield that day by refusing repeated pleas for artillery support from U.S. forces on the ground and failing to notify higher commands that they had troops in trouble. Three unidentified officers — likely captains or majors — were recommended for letters of reprimand, potential career killers, but Army officials have not said whether those reprimands were ever delivered.

Two investigations were conducted, with the first headed by an Army major in the first few days after the ambush. The second, focusing primarily on command post failure, was overseen by Army Col. Richard Hooker and Marine Col. James Werth in November 2009, military officials said.

In February, the military released a five-page summary report of its investigation, void of many details, including which units were involved. However, a copy of the full report obtained by Marine Corps Times includes first-person statements from more than 35 U.S. troops, describing in grisly detail the chaos on the battlefield and in the operations center, based at Forward Operating Base Joyce and overseen by Task Force Chosin, an Army unit comprising soldiers from 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, out of Fort Drum, N.Y.

Investigating officers said at least two service members in the field that day “stand out as extraordinary examples of heroism worthy of the highest recognition.” The names of the troops cited for bravery were redacted from the report, and it is unclear who else may be up for high-level military awards.

In a five-page hand-written statement included in the investigation’s final report, Meyer describes attempting to get to his missing buddies with another service member and being turned back by enemy fire at least twice in an armored vehicle equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun. He was wounded by shrapnel after an enemy rifle round hit the vehicle’s gun turret, he says in the statement.

Meyer, then 21, went into the kill zone on foot after helicopter pilots called on to respond said they could not help because the fighting on the ground was too fierce, the statement said. He found his buddies in a trench where the pilots had spotted them.

“I checked them all for a pulse. There [sic] bodies were already stiff,” Meyer said in a sworn statement he was asked to provide military investigators. “I found SSgt Kenefick facedown in the trench w/ his GPS in his hand. His face appeared as if he was screaming. He had been shot in the head.”

Meyer said Monday that he was glad to see the military honor Gunnery Sgt. Johnson, Lt. Johnson, Kenefick and Layton in September with Bronze Stars with “V” device. Kenefick also was posthumously promoted to gunnery sergeant.

Meyer hopes the recognition helps the families find closure, he said, even though he has struggled to find his own.

“I thought that once we hit the one-year mark, I’d start dealing with it,” he said of the ambush’s first anniversary. “You hope that storm ends soon, you know?”

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Staff writer Gidget Fuentes contributed to this report.