Marine’s Bravery Earns Highest Military Honor

By Marine Corps Cpl. Reece Lodder

Marine Corps Base Hawaii

MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, Aug. 13, 2011 – Removed from an ambushed platoon of Marines and soldiers in a remote Afghan village on Sept. 8, 2009, his reality viciously shaken by an onslaught of enemy fighters, Marine Corps Cpl. Dakota Meyer simply reacted as he knew best - tackling what he called "extraordinary circumstances" by "doing the right thing -- whatever it takes."

Nearly two years later, the White House announced yesterday that the 23-year-old Marine scout sniper from Columbia, Ky., who has since left the Marine Corps, will become the first living Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor in 38 years. Retired Sgt. Maj. Allan Kellogg Jr. received the medal in 1973 for gallantry in Vietnam three years earlier.

Meyer is the second Marine to receive the medal for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. Cpl. Jason Dunham was awarded the medal posthumously for covering a grenade with his body to save two Marines in Iraq in 2004. President Barack Obama will present the award to Meyer at the White House on Sept. 15.

"The award honors the men who gave their lives that day, and the men who were in that fight," Meyer said. "I didn't do anything more than any other Marine would. I was put in an extraordinary circumstance, and I just did my job."

Though bleeding from shrapnel wounds in his right arm, Meyer, aided by fellow Marines and Army advisors from Embedded Training Team 2-8, braved a vicious hail of enemy machine-gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire in the village of Ganjgal to help rescue and evacuate more than 15 wounded Afghan soldiers and recover the bodies of four fallen fighters - 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, Gunnery Sgts. Aaron Kenefick and Edwin Johnson Jr., and Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class James Layton.

ETT advisor Army Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Westbrook died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Oct. 7, 2009, from wounds suffered in the firefight.

Meyer charged through the battle zone five times to recover the dead Marines and injured Afghan soldiers, risking his life even when a medical evacuation helicopter wouldn't land because of the blazing gunfire.

"There's not a day - not a second that goes by where I don't think about what happened that day," Meyer said. "I didn't just lose four Marines that day; I lost four brothers."

Author Bing West, a retired Marine infantry officer and combat veteran of Vietnam, detailed Meyer's actions in the battle in "The Wrong War," and praised Meyer for taking command of the battle as a corporal - the most junior advisor in this firefight.

West said Meyer should have been killed, but he dominated the battlefield by fearlessly exposing himself to danger and pumping rifle and machine gun rounds into the enemy fighters.

"When you leave the perimeter, you don't know what's going to happen, regardless of what war you're fighting in," Kellogg, who lives in Kailua, Hawaii, said. "Once you get to a point where you make the decision - 'I'm probably going to die, so let the party begin' - once you say in your mind you aren't getting out of there, you fight harder and harder."

Beginning his career with the same regiment from which Kellogg retired in 1990, Meyer deployed with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2007, and earned a meritorious promotion to corporal in late 2008 after returning from the deployment.

Before leaving for Iraq, Meyer completed the Marine Corps' 10-week Scout Sniper Basic Course, and committed himself to preparing himself and his snipers for combat. They attended lifesaving classes taught by Navy corpsmen and honed their skills with myriad weapons systems, such as light machine guns. Meyer also spent time in his battalion's communications section learning how to call for mortar and artillery fire.

"I devoted my whole life to making the best snipers in the Marine Corps," Meyer said. "They're a direct reflection of your leadership. If you fail them in training, it could get them killed on the battlefield."

In February 2009, Meyer volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan's dangerous Kunar province and mentor Afghan soldiers as part of an embedded training team, the type of role usually filled by U.S. Special Forces.

"A Marine who seeks the challenge of joining his unit's scout sniper platoon has to have a lot of drive and determination," said Col. Nathan Nastase, commanding officer of 3rd Marine Regiment and formerly Meyer's battalion commander at 3/3. "Being assigned to the ETT was a huge vote of confidence in his abilities."

Meyer deployed to Afghanistan on the ETT in July 2009.

"Our mission was to help prepare the Afghans to take over their own country and provide security for themselves," Meyer said. "ETTs make a huge impact on the outcome of the war."

In Kunar province, Meyer and another ETT advisor would lead squads of 15 Afghan soldiers on patrols. Since he could speak Pashto, the local language, so well, Meyer often separated from the element with his Afghan trainees.

When his patrol fought to rescue another from an ambush Sept. 8, 2009, Meyer's focus on advising gave way to surviving, and on what he had to do to keep himself and his men alive.

"I lost a lot of Afghans that day," Meyer said. "And I'll tell you right now, they were just as close to me as those Marines were. At the end of the day, I don't care if they're Afghans, Iraqis, Marines or Army; it didn't matter. They're in the same [stuff] you are, and they want to go home and see their family just as bad as you do."

Thrown into unimaginable circumstances, Meyer said the Afghan soldiers and his sniper training saved his life during the battle.

Jacody Downey is a close friend of Meyer's from Kentucky. He's seen his friend grow from a fun-loving "jokester" in high school to a driven Marine who deeply respected both elders and subordinates.

"Dakota has always cared more about others than he does himself," Downey said. "Even if he's not with his Marines now, he's still constantly thinking about them, worrying about them and calling to check on them. He still considers them brothers."

Cpl. David Hawkins grew as a Marine under Meyer's leadership in 3/3's Scout Sniper Platoon.

"Meyer was an ideal leader," Hawkins, from Parker, Colo., said. "He knew everything about the Marines underneath him - how they'd respond to every situation, not only on a Marine Corps level but also on a personal level."

Hawkins said he was deeply humbled by Meyer's concern as a friend, especially after being injured in Afghanistan last year. Hawkins was severely wounded by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan Sept. 24, 2010. Four days later, he lay static in a stark hospital room, riddled with shrapnel. After groggily emerging from anesthesia into a blurry reality, Hawkins' phone rang - the first call from a friend. Without fail, Meyer's jovial drawl broke through the speaker.

"In the Marine Corps, you always hear that if something's broke, you've got to work to fix it, but you never really see the Marine who does it," Hawkins said. "Meyer is that Marine. If he had something to say, he'd say it, and he wasn't really afraid of repercussions for what he said. If it needed to be changed, he changed it."

Hearing his friend would receive the Medal of Honor didn't surprise Hawkins. In light of the "character" and "country boy" Hawkins knows, Meyer's actions were simply the manifestation of how he lived and led.

"Meyer was destined for the Medal of Honor," Hawkins said. "If you got to work with him, you'd see it."

Meyer completed his tour on active duty in June 2010. He went home to Kentucky, where he's found purpose working with his hands in a family business.

"Pouring concrete is kind of like the Marine Corps," Meyer said. "When you wake up in the morning, you've got a job … like a mission. There's no set standard on how to do things, but you just have to go out there, make decisions and get it done - and that's like the challenge of the Marine Corps. Once you're satisfied with what you've done, you stop getting better."

Meyer is the 86th living Medal of Honor recipient, and he joins a small, elite group of heroes, a reality that will often require him to conjure up haunting reminders of the battles he has fought, the friends he has lost and the painful regret he bears.

"I'm not a hero, by any means - I'm a Marine, that's what I am," he said. "The heroes are the men and women still serving, and the guys who gave their lives for their country. At the end of the day, I went in there to do the right thing, … and it all boils down to doing the right thing, … whatever it takes. All those things we learn stick in your head, and when you live by it, that's the Marine way."

Though Meyer will receive the Medal of Honor for what he did in Ganjgal, he insists he will wear the five-pointed medallion and blue silk ribbon to honor his fallen brothers, their families and his fellow Marines.

"Being a Marine is a way of life," Meyer said. "It isn't just a word, and it's not just about the uniform - it's about brotherhood. Brotherhood means that when you turn around, they're there, through thick and thin. If you can't take care of your brothers, what can you do in life?"

Army Brigade Commander Visits Wounded Troops

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2011 – The conversation flowed easily this morning as Army Col. Sean M. Jenkins sat with several 101st Airborne Division soldiers, talking about everything from operations heating up in Afghanistan’s Paktika province to the impact of a possible government shutdown on his deployed troops and their families back at Fort Campbell, Ky.

The setting wasn’t Forward Operating Base Sharana, Jenkins’ 4th Brigade Combat Team and Task Force Currahee headquarters, or one of its combat outposts dotting the easternmost sector of Regional Command East in Afghanistan.

It was in a cafeteria here at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where Jenkins, traveling home for his mid-tour rest-and-recovery leave, paid a visit to check on his wounded troops.

They gathered around the table, one in a wheelchair, one with a cane, another rubbing his steel-plated leg that always aches when the barometer drops, eager for news about the units and comrades they left behind.

The 101st “Screaming Eagles” have suffered heavy losses during their deployment as part of the surge force in Afghanistan. The 4th Brigade Combat Team alone has lost 15 soldiers since it deployed last summer, with scores more wounded and more than 40 medevacced out for advanced medical care.

So when Jenkins left Afghanistan for the first time in seven months for his mid-tour leave -- before seeing his wife Karin, his bubbly, blonde 3-year-old daughter, or his beloved golden retriever and black Labrador dogs at Fort Campbell -- he spent several days with his wounded warriors at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas; and Walter Reed.

“I came to say thanks,” Jenkins said, “and to talk with them about what is going on forward and how their teammates are doing.”

The chit-chat today in Walter Reed’s cafeteria, hallways and the Military Advanced Training Center where soldiers receive intensive physical therapy treatments bounced from one topic to another. They praised a heroic private first class from the unit who was undaunted as his unit faced the enemy, discussed the merits of the leadership novel, “Once an Eagle,” talked about improvements in military housing and heard news of the new 120 mm precision-guided mortar munitions round the brigade just received in Afghanistan.

But beyond the casual and sometimes not-so-casual conversation, Jenkins worked to gauge how his soldiers are faring as they recover from lost limbs, shattered bones and other devastating injuries.

“I try to open up a stream of conversation with them about how they are doing, how they are being treated, how their medical care is going and what their concerns are,” he said.

Throughout his conversations, he pulled out a pocket-size notebook to jot down names, email addresses and messages to pass on or requests to follow up on.

“These guys deserve everything we can do for them, and nothing less,” Jenkins said. “They need to understand that we are here for them, whatever it is they need.”

Once of the most welcomed things Jenkins delivers to the troops -- whether his own or members of another 101st Airborne Division element -- is reassurance that they haven’t been forgotten.

“They are still part of the team,” he said. “And that is part of the message. I tell them, ‘Just because you are back here, attached or assigned to one of the hospitals for a period of time, you are still part of the unit.’ It is important they understand that linkage is not broken.”

Many of the wounded warriors call that some of the best medicine they could get.

“It’s very important to me. It’s part of your mental fitness,” said Army 1st Lt. Aaron Palmer, a 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment soldier whose femur was broken in three places and his iliac artery destroyed during an enemy attack in October.

“I can’t tell you how close we are overseas,” Palmer said. “Your unit becomes like your family, and it’s really great when that family keeps in touch with you….Every time I see that [Screaming Eagle] patch, I know it’s a brother.”

“It helps me a lot,” agreed Army Sgt. Anthony Verra of the 4th BCT’s sister 2nd “Strike” BCT who lost both legs to an improvised explosive device in September. “Visits like this are really motivational.”

Army Pfc. Corey Kent, another “Strike” soldier, said he’s been “blown away” by the outpouring he’s received from his fellow Screaming Eagles since arriving at Walter Reed in mid-July, just three weeks into his deployment.

Kent was on a patrol near Kandahar, called in to provide security for another unit that had been hit by an IED. He suffered the same fate, losing two legs, one above the knee and one at the hip, as well as all the fingers on his left hand.

Today, he told Jenkins he had hoped to make the military a career and still plans to explore options the Army may open to him. “I’d feel like I was giving up if I just leave,” Kent said.

Jenkins said he encourages his soldiers not to let their wounds prevent them from striving for their dreams.

“There are no closed doors,” he tells them. “Only you close the door if you physically want to close the door.”

'Eagle' Flies to Military Family's Aid

By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

Jan. 23, 2007 – Injured in Iraq, Katie Kriesel's husband is facing a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here. But her employer, Eagle Global Logistics, is making sure she'll get to stay by his side. On Dec. 3, Katie, of Cottage Grove, Minn., got the call deployed servicemembers' spouses dread. Her husband, Minnesota Army National Guardsman Sgt. John Kriesel, had been seriously injured by a roadside bomb south of Fallujah the day before.

"He lost both of his legs -- one above the knee and one below," Katie said. "He had a shattered pelvis and sacrum (a bone at the base of the spine) that they've had to fuse to his lower back, and then he had both bones in his left forearm broken in several places, (a) fractured right wrist and then some internal injuries to his abdomen."

He arrived at Walter Reed on Dec. 8, and though he's only a third of the way through 12 weeks of mandatory bed rest after back surgery, Katie said he's doing very well.

Thanks to her employer, Katie is doing well, too.

When she received that fateful call, she turned to her friend, Nancy Matthews, for moral support. Matthews also happens to be Katie's supervisor and knew Katie would need more than moral support.

"I went over to her house that afternoon and just started doing stuff and playing with the kids until we could get some more news," Matthews said.

Soon, John's condition stabilized and he was moved from Iraq to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. With two challenges confronting Katie - she had no passport and needed a flight to Germany - Matthews sprung into action.

"I started pulling stuff off the Web on applications for passports, and then put in motion some of my colleagues in Chicago," Matthews said. Eagle Global Logistics is in the cargo business. "As soon as I got in on Monday morning, I started talking to the (vice presidents) at Northwest Airlines that I know that work with cargo ... asking them if there was any way that they could get Katie and her mother over to Germany as quickly as possible."

Soon, a Chicago colleague was walking Katie's application through the regional passport office. She was able to pick it up at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport a couple of hours before her 9:30 p.m. flight departed Dec. 4.

The flight, compliments of Matthews' efforts and airline industry connections, found Katie and her mother flying first class. "My employer actually got me Northwest vouchers to go to Germany, and all I had to pay was the tax on them," Katie said.

She was to return to the states with her husband via military medical transport, but was bumped at the last minute when additional wounded servicemembers making the flight back required that more medical personnel be aboard.

Distressed that she wouldn't be arriving at Walter Reed with her husband, Katie again turned to her boss for moral support. Again, she got much more than that. Matthews arranged return transportation with Northwest for Katie, her mother and a military escort who had traveled to Germany with them.

The support didn't stop with coordinating travel, though. Matthews knew this wasn't going to be a short-lived ordeal, so she turned to her 150 employees.

"We're all a family here, even though we aren't related, and they knew John was over there," she said. "We told them that Katie was going over there and that we were going to try and do everything we could to help."

In the first four hours, $2,200 was collected, Matthew said.

Perhaps more valuable than the funds, which Katie said grew to tens of thousands of dollars, is time to spend with her husband while he recuperates.

John had been home for two weeks of leave in October, and Katie used two of her three weeks of vacation at the same time.

"They set up a way for people all over the company, worldwide, to be able to donate vacation time to me," Katie said. "I have seven months of paid vacation time that people have donated, and it just keeps coming in."

So does the support from Eagle Global Logistics offices worldwide. They have given both financial support and paid vacation time, and the Chicago office took care of Christmas for the Kriesels' boys, Brody, 4, and Elijah, 5, so the family could celebrate the holiday in John's room.

"They're in it for the long haul, and that's just so amazing to me," Katie said. "The support just continues and doesn't lessen. If anything, it grows, and that, to me, is just completely overwhelming."

Indeed, the support does continue to grow. Matthews said the company is planning a fundraiser for the Kriesel family in late spring. The hope is John will be able to take convalescent leave and attend so he can thank everyone for their support.

Though John is very positive, he does have bad days, his wife said. To help both John and Katie battle the occasional blues, the company has created a distraction.

"We are desperately trying to get enough money that we can build them a new house that can accommodate John's injuries," she said. "When John has had his really bad days and he's cried about having to sell their house, ... (we say), 'OK John, I'm sending you a plan book. I want you to pick out your perfect house.'"

Though Eagle Global Logistics has never had another employee encounter such catastrophic circumstances, Katie and John's situation was a wake-up call, Matthews said. The company now has created a corporate fund to assist other employees who encounter a similar situation.

"If a corporation, for instance, wants to donate tax-free funds, they can donate it through this account that Eagle is creating," she said. "They can designate it just for John and Katie, and then if someone else has a tragedy of this magnitude ... other people can apply for aid."

While the level of support coming from Eagle Global Logistics and its employees seems phenomenal, Matthews said she isn't a bit surprised. "We all just told John we would take care of Katie while he was gone - Katie and the kids - and we did," she said.

Katie, overwhelmed by the outpouring, said the value of the support is much greater than its monetary value.

"I will never look for another job, ever in my whole life. I mean that very honestly," she said. "I will be with that company forever, because how would you ever replace that?

"You can't put a dollar value on that," she said.

Individual donations to benefit the couple should be made out to the John and/or Katie Kriesel Benefit Fund, and mailed to EGS, Attn: Nancy Matthews, 3169 Dodd Road, Eagan, MN 55121.

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