McClatchy newspapers alleged that key facts in the corps’ publicised account of Corporal Dakota Meyer’s actions in a 2009 battle were inaccurate, overstated or unsubstantiated. The US Marine Corps on Wednesday rejected a report that the elite unit exaggerated the deeds of a former trooper who won the country’s most prestigious military honor for his valor in Afghanistan.
The Marines said they were “disappointed” with the article.
“We firmly stand behind the Medal of Honor (MOH) process and the conclusion that this Marine rightly deserved the nation’s highest military honor,” the Marine Corps said in a statement. Meyer, 23, was the first living Marine since the Vietnam War to receive the Medal of Honor, which was presented to him on September 15 by President Barack Obama in a televised White House ceremony.
Obama hailed Meyer for defying orders and rushing into the heart of an ambush to retrieve fallen comrades, save 13 fellow Americans, kill eight Taliban insurgents and leave his gun turret to rescue two dozen Afghans. But the McClatchy report, written by Jonathan Landay, a journalist who was accompanying Meyer’s unit and witnessed the 2009 battle in the Ganjgal Valley, said details of that account were untrue or unconfirmed.
It was not possible for Meyer to have saved 13 US troops, the article said, because 12 Americans were ambushed in the battle, including the McClatchy reporter, and four troopers were killed, it said. And military documents indicated that the arrival of helicopters secured the survival of the remaining personnel, not Meyer’s vehicle.
There are no statements from fellow troops confirming that Meyer, who has since left the military, killed eight Taliban as claimed on the Marine Corps website, the article said. The driver of Meyer’s vehicle, Staff Sergeant Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, reported seeing Meyer kill one insurgent. There were also no sworn statements that backed up the portrayal of Meyer leaping out of his gun turret and pulling the 24 wounded Afghans into his truck, according to the report.
Meyer’s driver described nine Afghan soldiers getting into the Humvee armored vehicle by themselves while Meyer remained in the turret, it said. The article also said there was no evidence that supported the White House and Marine Corps account that Meyer defied orders by heading towards gunfire to help his comrades.
US Marines ‘exaggerated’ deeds of war hero
