Dakota Meyer: A Brave Soldier

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Dakota Meyer

Dakota Meyer was born on the 26th of June, 1988 in Colombia, Kentucky and raised in Greensburg, a small town where alcohol sales are illegal and farm work is the most popular work. After his parents were divorced, his dad raised him on a farm next to his grandparents’. His dad was a farmer and Dakota helped out and learned how to be a farmer himself over his high school days. According to him in an interview he “was not a model student”, as he described foolish happenings of him and his friends. During lunch one day, he saw a Marine recruiter and, at first, he walked away but then he turned around and told the recruiter “you go pick up your stuff right now, lets go sign those papers”. That same day when his dad got home, Dakota was waiting with the recruiter in his home.

When Dakota went to boot camp, where he celebrated his 18th birthday, he went into the infantry and later was trained to be a Marine Scout Sniper. He served one tour in Iraq, and prior to him leaving for a second tour, an opportunity to go to Afghanistan arose. Meyer opted for Afghanistan. While in Afghanistan, Meyer was assigned to the Marine Embedded Training Team 2-8 in Kunar Province. On September 8th, 2009 Meyer’s unit was given a mission to go to Ganjgal Valley, in Kunar province to meet with village elders that wanted to turn over their allegiance from the Taliban to US forces. The plan was for the Afghan battalion to leave base before the sun came up and arrive at the village before first light. They would talk to the elders about renovating a mosque and see whether there were other projects the government could help with. A U.S. quick-reaction force would be on standby, and an observation post would be established to keep ...

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...ourage to run into that fire and do my job the best I can. Training that could help me with that situation is classes from the fire academy to teach me how to block out thoughts and just act to protect and/or save anybody inside. An example of when I will act beyond the call of duty will be when I have to protect or save somebody from a situation while ill-equipped to handle that situation.

Michaels, Jim. "USA TODAY." USATODAY.COM. USA TODAY, 7 Sept. 2011. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

Meyer, Dakota. "The Real Dakota." Dakota Meyer. Dakota Meyer, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

"Dakota Meyer Citation." Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Congressional Medal of Honor Society, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

Moore, David. "Dakota Meyer: Marine’s Daring Action Motivates Team to Continue Fight." Veterans United Network. Veterans United Home Loans, 26 Dec. 2012. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

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