Medal of Honor Monday: Marine Corps Sgt. Dakota Meyer

In 2009, during the war in Afghanistan, Marine Corps Sgt. Dakota Louis Meyer spent hours traversing an active combat zone to rescue dozens of trapped men and recover the bodies of four U.S. service members. Despite disobeying orders to do so, Meyer's actions led him the Medal of Honor.

Meyer was born June 26, 1988, in Columbia, Kentucky, to Felicia Gilliam and Mike Meyer. He grew up on his father's farm and enjoyed hunting and playing football.

After Meyer graduated from Green County High School in 2006, he decided to follow in his grandfather's footstep and become a Marine. He trained as an infantryman and sniper and deployed to Iraq in 2007. In 2009, Meyer volunteered to go to Afghanistan to be an advisor to the Afghan army, working as a turret gunner attached to Embedded Training Team 2-8, Regional Corps Advisory Command 3-7.

Shortly before dawn on Sept. 8, 2009, the 21-year-old Meyer was working security at a patrol rally point in Kunar Province while other unit members and two platoons of Afghan soldiers walked into the village of Ganjgal for an early-morning meeting with its elders.

It was a trap. As the unit moved in, the village's lights suddenly went out, and the patrol was ambushed. More than 50 Taliban fighters broke the morning silence by firing machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars from houses and other fortified positions on the slopes above the town.

Meyer and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez were about a mile away when the chaos was broadcast over the radio. When they heard that four U.S. team members - Meyer's friends - were surrounded, he asked for permission four times to go in and help. Each time, he was told no - it was too dangerous.

Meyer chose to go in anyway. He hopped into a nearby Humvee and, with Rodriguez-Chavez driving, took the gunner's position as they drove through steeply terraced terrain into the fight.

"They were defying orders, but they were doing what they thought was right," President Barack Obama later said during Meyer's Medal of Honor ceremony.

Suddenly, the intense insurgent fire was focused on them. Even though Meyer's entire upper body was exposed, he ignored the intense fire around him. Using mounted machine guns and a rifle, he took out several insurgents, including some at point-blank range. Meyer and Rodriguez-Chavez made several trips like this into the ambush area.

During the first two trips, the pair were able to evacuate two-dozen Afghan soldiers, many of whom were wounded. According to Meyer's Medal of Honor citation, when one of his Humvee's machine guns stopped working, he directed Rodriguez-Chavez to go back to the rally point to exchange vehicles.

On their third trip into the ambush area, Meyer used his fire power to help more trapped men fight their way out. By then, their vehicle was riddled with bullets and shrapnel.

"Those who were there called it the most intense combat they'd ever seen," Obama later said. "Dakota and Juan would have been forgiven for not going back in. But as Dakota says, you don't leave anyone behind."

Meyer had suffered a shrapnel wound to his arm, but he disregarded the pain and made two more trips into the ambush area to recover more Afghan soldiers, this time with support from other friendly vehicles.

By their fifth trip into the ambush area, cover fire from a UH-60 Black Hawk had finally arrived to offer air support, according to a 2011 Associated Press article. The helicopter reported that it could see what appeared to be four bodies, so Meyer went to that area to search for his missing team members.

"He kept going until he came upon those four Americans, laying where they fell, together as one team," Obama said. "Dakota and the others who had joined him knelt down, picked up their comrades and - through all those bullets, all the smoke, all the chaos - carried them out, one by one. Because, as Dakota says, 'That's what you do for a brother.'"

For his commitment and courage during those harrowing six hours, Meyer received the Medal of Honor on Sept. 15, 2011, during a White House ceremony hosted by Obama, with whom the Marine shared a beer earlier in the week.

"Because of your honor, 36 men are alive today," Obama said at the ceremony. "Because of your courage, four fallen American heroes came home, and in the words of James Layton's mom, [their families] could lay their sons to rest with dignity."

Meyer told the president he accepted the award to honor the men who died in the Ganjgal firefight: Marine Corps 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. Edwin Johnson, Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class James Layton, a medic; and Army Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth Westbrook, who was wounded in the ambush and later died.

Meyer was the first living Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. Only two other Marines from those conflicts were bestowed the high honor: Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, who received the award in 2014 for actions in Afghanistan in 2010; and Cpl. Jason Dunham, who died in Iraq in 2004 and received a posthumous Medal of Honor in 2007.

Rodriguez-Chavez, who fought with Meyer in Ganjgal, received the Navy Cross for his valor.

Meyer left the active duty Marine Corps in June 2010. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, he took a job at a construction site and worked for the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation. He's also spent time as a firefighter and first responder.

Meyer has co-written two books: "Into the Fire," about the Battle of Ganjgal; and "The Way Forward," which focuses on life lessons after war. He continues to work with service members, visiting various military installations and taking part in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hiring Our Heroes initiative. He's also a vocal advocate for post-traumatic stress disorder awareness, something which he suffers from and has sought treatment.

Meyer continues to be honored by his community. In 2011, he earned an honorary doctorate degree from Lindsey Wilson College in his hometown. A portion of Highway 61 in Columbia was also named for him.

Meyer has two daughters and is an active church member.