WASHINGTON — Dakota Meyer, a Marine who used to be awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism within the Afghanistan Struggle however later changed into a pointy critic of the Biden management over its chaotic withdrawal from that battle, is reenlisting within the army and can serve within the Marine Reserves.
In a briefing with journalists on Thursday sooner than his reenlistment rite, Meyer stated he’s returning to army carrier after 15 years out of uniform as a result of he felt he “had extra to offer.” He is additionally with reference to President Donald Trump’s protection secretary, Pete Hegseth.
However Meyer stated he would chorus from politics whilst in uniform.
“The good section about being within the reserves is I am nonetheless a citizen when I am not on orders,” he stated. “When I am on orders I will comply clearly with no matter the usual is.”
Meyer used to be awarded the Medal of Honor, the army’s easiest honor, via then-President Barack Obama in 2011 for his heroics in Afghanistan when he charged 5 occasions in a Humvee into heavy gunfire to rescue comrades underneath assault via Taliban insurgents.
On Sept. 8, 2009, Meyer used to be a part of a safety workforce supporting a patrol transferring right into a village within the Ganjgal Valley. , the lighting fixtures 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 movements throughout the six-hour assault and firefight stored the lives of 36 folks, each American citizens and Afghans. He killed a minimum of 8 Taliban insurgents. Firing from a gun turret on best of a Humvee pushed via a fellow Marine, he supplied quilt for his workforce, permitting many to flee most likely dying.
4 American infantrymen died within the ambush: 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, 25, from Virginia Seaside, Virginia; Body of workers 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 5th guy, 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, they usually had two youngsters.
He’s been outspoken concerning the jailing of some other Marine — Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller — who criticized the Biden management for the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan in social media posts whilst in uniform, which is a contravention of army behavior.
