This is a real story of a US Marine that saved the lives of his fellow Marines. Dakota Meyer was apart of the Embedded Training Team 2-8. Meyer received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of Ganjgal.

September 08, 2009

Dakota Meyer was sitting in a lawn chair, talking with some friends. When suddenly he heard over the radio that four fellow soldiers were being ambushed by the Taliban in a small village. He rushed to his Sergeant and told him that four soldiers are trapped in the village and needed help.

“Meyer, there are more troops in the village. They can save them,” said the Sergeant.

“Sir, the Taliban is in that village and they will probably find the other groups and trap them too, someone needs to go into battle and save them,”  said Meyer.

“Meyer, you are not allowed to go into battle. We don’t want more casualties,” said the Sergeant.

“Sir, you don’t give a damn about your troops! If I go into battle, I’m either going to save the lives of your goddamned troops or I’m going to die trying,” Meyer yelled back.

“Meyer, this is an order, and you are not going to go and get your ass killed,” yelled the Sergeant. Meyer ran to the nearest humvee and Rodriguez-Chavez and Fabayo followed him to the truck.

“Meyer, get your ass back here!” yelled the Sergeant. Rodriguez-Chavez got in the driver's seat, Fabayo manned the gun, and Meyer got in the passenger's seat.

Rodriguez-Chavez drove the truck through heavy fire. Fabayo was suppressing the fire to allow Rodriguez-Chavez to drive up to the first group of Marines and Afghan soldiers. Rodriguez-Chavez parked the truck so it acted like a shield. Meyer got out of the truck to load the group soldiers. Rodriguez-Chavez drove the group of soldiers back to base camp. They unloaded the group and they got some basic medical attention if they needed it. They then got back in the humvee and drove deeper into the kill zone. They reached the second group and they parked the truck again and loaded the marines and Afghan soldiers into the truck. The truck returned to base camp and dropped off the wounded soldiers. The group then drove the humvee back into combat to save the last group on soldiers. Meyer went off on foot to find the missing group of soldiers. He walked through the village were the injured Marines and Afghan soldiers had been cleared out. The Taliban also had left this area of the village. Meyer stumbled upon the dead group of soldiers. He saw that they have been stripped of their guns, radios, and gear. He then noticed that there was a Taliban soldier trying to drag off the dead soldiers. Meyer charged the man with nothing but a rock. He tackled him to the ground and started beating him with the rock. After a few hits, the Taliban soldier had been beaten to death. Meyer used the radio to call base camp.

“Hello, hello, is anyone there?” Meyer said through the radio.

The other end of the radio replied with “This is 1st Sergeant Christopher Garza We have you loud and clear,”

“I’ve found the four missing soldiers dead. I need a truck to pick me up and transport the casualties,” Meyer requested.

“No problem sir, we will be there in five minutes,” replied Garza. Meyer waited for five minutes and the truck pulled up. They loaded in the casualties and headed back to base camp.

September 11, 2011

“On this day Dakota Meyer, Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, and Ademola Fabayo are to be known as National Heroes. They saved the lives of many fellow soldiers and, also returned the bodies of fallen soldiers during the Battle of Ganjgal. Dakota Meyer is to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez and Ademola D. Fabayo are to be awarded the Navy Cross,” said Barack Obama. Meyer, Rodriguez-Chavez and, Fabayo were honored to be known as National Heroes but, they didn’t save the lives of fellow soldiers for the honor; they did it because it was their call to duty to save lives.