Posted on 12/15/2011 7:17:14 AM PST by World'sGoneInsane
With Dakota Meyer standing at attention in his dress uniform, sweat glistening on his forehead under the television lights, President Barack Obama extolled the former Marine corporal for the “extraordinary actions” that had earned him the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor. SNIP
But an exhaustive assessment by a McClatchy correspondent who was embedded with the unit and survived the ambush found that the Marines’ official accounts of Meyer’s deeds....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The politics here is that he showed character in standing up to his employer. He could have just remained silent and taken his pay and benefits. BUT, he could not remain silent, because of his character.
Oh yes, and supporting Perry probably hasn't helped his cause. Had he remained silent, no one would be questioning anything.
Experience shows, many outlets will push the first story without the follow-up. If this post serves to preempt a smear, then I am glad you and others are reading it.
The approval of Meyer’s medal — in an unusually short time — came as lawmakers and serving and former officers pressed the military services and the Pentagon to award more Medals of Honor because of the relatively few conferred in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Only 10 of the decorations have been awarded since 2001, seven of them posthumously.
The president’s version drew on materials the Marine Corps provided but it was written in the White House, the Marine officials said. While there’s no indication that the White House knew that Obama was narrating an embellished story — to an audience of several hundred Meyer family members, top officials, lawmakers and service members — the revelations could tarnish one of the signature moments of his time as commander in chief.
The White House said Obama’s remarks were based primarily on “extensive documentation provided by the Department of Defense and the Marine Corps,” including sworn testimony from Meyer and other eyewitnesses. It also relied on news reports and on a 2011 book, “The Wrong War” by Bing West. However, McClatchy found that the book’s account of the battle is riddled with inaccuracies.
The Washington Post? They are not fit to kiss the boots of my marine son!
McClatchy found that the claim that Meyer saved the lives of 13 U.S. Marines and soldiers couldn’t be true. Twelve Americans were ambushed — including this correspondent — and of those, four were killed. (One wounded American would die a month later.) Moreover, multiple sworn statements affirm McClatchy’s firsthand reporting that it was the long-delayed arrival of U.S. helicopters that saved the American survivors.
There are no statements attesting to Meyer killing eight Taliban as recounted on the Marine Corps website. The driver of Meyer’s vehicle, Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, reported seeing Meyer kill one insurgent.
No sworn statements — including one Meyer gave to military investigators five days after the battle — refer to him leaping from the Humvee’s turret to rescue 24 wounded Afghan soldiers on his first two runs into the valley. Rodriguez-Chavez attested to nine Afghan soldiers getting into the Humvee by themselves while Meyer remained in the turret.
Four sworn statements, including Rodriguez-Chavez’s, undermine the claim that he and Meyer drove into the valley against orders. And the documents indicate that it was Swenson who led the final drive to retrieve the fallen Americans, taking command of Meyer’s Humvee after ditching his bullet-riddled Ford Ranger. Meyer rode in the Humvee’s back seat.
The inflated versions of events were prepared at the Marine Corps’ Public Affairs office at the Pentagon by a special working group assembled for the task, a knowledgeable official said. The group consulted Meyer’s former commander, Williams, as it drafted the citation, but it didn’t confer with him in assembling the account posted on the Marine Corps website, the official said.
The Marines excluded Williams — who was shot and wounded in the left arm during the battle and won a Bronze Star for valor — from Meyer’s ceremony at the White House. Also excluded was Capt. Ademola Fabayo, who won the Navy Cross, the nation’s second-highest award for valor, for his role in Ganjgal. Williams and Fabayo declined to be interviewed for this article.
Agreed. Maybe some future President will upgrade his NC to a MOH as was done with Inyoue.
"Marines promoted inflated story for Medal of Honor recipient"
I am standing with the Marines that were there, rather than the reporters version.
Sterner said errors in citations had always haunted recipients and that many Medal of Honor winners had been cited for things they didn’t do. He added that the mounting pressure to find a living recipient has made mistakes in details almost inevitable.
“Did this man deserve the Medal of Honor? If the answer to that is yes, then the details of the citation become secondary,” Sterner said. “But we do need to keep the record as accurately as we possibly can.”
Yes, those little guys were incredibly brave and really did incredible things.
Their commanding officer was under the impression he was supposed to use them in very dangerous situations ~ maybe not as "shock troops" but pretty close.
Another unit that got an awful lot of MOHs was the 115, that is the First Battalion of the Fifteenth Infantry Brigade. Of course they got similar awards in WWI and in Korea. One evening on guard when I'd won the Guard of Honor designation I got to stand in Headquarters and I took the time to read every single one of their awards, and look at their pictures.
Heroes look like everybody else ~ but what they do for the MOH is beyond that which is required. They do what they are supposed to do and that gets you a Silver Star ~ and they go beyond that and do that which puts them in reach of death ~ and then they go way beyond that. At some point others may join them.
It's everything Homer said it was ~ and beyond that.
7 witnesses attested to events that justified the MOH in this case.
A single Leftwing propagandist wants this second guessed. Let me say this about that ~ he was imbedded. The fact he returned alive means he wasn't close enough to really know what this young man did.
Thank you, Muawiyah. Well said.
I’m right with you, Kabar
...can't shoot 'em... ...at least not while anyone is watching...
If the reporter provides the documents to back up what he says, what we gonna do? Say he forged them? After the Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman fiascos, I will be highly ticked off if this is true. The military isn’t above lying about these things.
Must be a slow news day....
Why don't they name this person?
The facts don't bear that out at all. One MOH was awarded at the time and the other 20 were awarded by Clinton. These were upgraded from DSCs, not exactly a shabby award. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was the most decorated unit, for its size and length of service, in the entire history of the U.S. Military. The Unit received 52 DSCs and an unprecedented 8 PUCs. 20 of those DSCs were upgraded to the MOH by Clinton. The idea that the politics of the time "prohibited" JAs getting such awards in such numbers is pure nonsense. In fact, it was probably good politics to counteract the internment camps and the shadow cast on the loyalty of JAs.
I believe that 21 MOHs to a unit of 14,000 serving members is grossly disproportionate and motivated by politics. 27 MOHs were given for Iwo Jima, 30% of all the MOHs awarded to the USMC during WWII. You could probably use the same rationale to upgrade Navy Crosses awarded on Iwo Jima to MOHs as was used by Clinton to upgrade those to the 442nd.
We have plenty of people who want to push their revisionist view of history. The MOH has been politicized along with other narratives that try to use diversity and multiculturalism as their themes. It demeans the awards and distorts history. Ken Burns show on WWII devoted a large portion of time on the internment camps, the 442nd, blacks, etc. on their contribution to the war effort.
There were 125,000 African Americans who were overseas in World War II. Clinton upgraded the awards of 7 black WWII servicemen to the MOH. If you don't believe that is not motivated by politics, then we will just agree to disagree.
Very, very low, even for the Washington Post - and that’s sating something about these bottom feeders.
Unless your Lee Harvey Oswald or Charles Whitman...
No Marine or service member wants to be in the position that he and his fellow Marines were in that day. He did what a Marine would do.
If the reporter has a problem with the story, then let him/her go after that--NOT the agreed acts of heroism by Meyer's.
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