Like A Rock

Images courtesy: Sgt. James Shea

When I spoke to Sgt. Dakota Meyer by phone in August, I was immediately struck by the future Medal of Honor recipient's total and complete humility. As the sounds of cows on his family farm filled the background, Sgt. Meyer told The Unknown Soldiers how he would carry himself before and after being honored by President Obama at the White House.

"I hope to try to help people see how much the Marines help people," he said.

On the heels of an outrageous, discredited front page New York Times story targeting a group of Marines last week, McClatchy Newspapers, which claims to speak "truth to power," decided to attack Meyer and the Marine Corps eleven days before Christmas. Just when you think some in the media can't stoop any lower, we get this:

"Sworn statements by Meyer and others who participated in the battle indicate that he didn't save the lives of 13 U.S. service members, leave his vehicle to scoop up 24 Afghans on his first two rescue runs or lead the final push to retrieve the four dead Americans. Moreover, it's unclear from the documents whether Meyer disobeyed orders when he entered the Ganjgal Valley on Sept. 8, 2009," the report states.

After his incendiary "question" about whether Meyer disobeyed orders, reporter Jonathan S. Landay, perhaps accidentally, directly contradicts himself and calls the entire reason for his story into question.

"What's most striking is that all this probably was unnecessary. Meyer, the 296th Marine to earn the medal, by all accounts deserved his nomination. At least seven witnesses attested to him performing heroic deeds 'in the face of almost certain death,'" he wrote.

After previously stating that it's "unclear" whether the Marine disobeyed orders, the writer bizarrely acknowledges that Meyer deserved his nomination. So why did McClatchy editors still publish this story? Gen. James Amos, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, issued a strong statement standing firmly behind Meyer's Medal of Honor.

"The facts are that he saved many lives and recovered the bodies of his fallen comrades," Gen. Amos said in the written statement. "In this, he did not act alone; other brave warriors-soldiers and Marines and Afghans-were also in the fight for their lives."

The general rightfully points out what another Marine who was wounded in Iraq recently told me: during the chaos of a battle, nearly everyone remembers details differently. The combination of adrenaline, confronting death, and attacking the enemy is something that 99% of our population has never experienced, even though some modern journalists routinely write articles criticizing those who made split-second decisions during the heat of battle.

"In the final analysis, I did not find cause to question any single fact, nor minor discrepancy that may be buried in descriptions of a battle that lasted for hours and evoked such bravery in our troops," the general wrote.

Rick Leventhal of Fox News, who has met Meyer several times and even had dinner with him, makes an important point in this excellent opinion piece.

"Dakota Meyer never asked for the attention he's getting and he's never considered himself a hero," Leventhal wrote.

I've worked with hundreds of journalists, many of whom relish the spotlight and consider themselves very important people. Some of these journalists would almost certainly pat the McClatchy reporter on the back at a cocktail party for writing this story. I left the mainstream media because I'd rather spend my career learning more about those who volunteer to protect us instead of trying to help some journalists create the news.

At the end of his statement on this manufactured controversy, Gen. Amos gave the country something to think about regarding heroes who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

"My only question is - where do we find such men?" the general asked.

To respectfully answer the general's question, you will find one such man on a farm in Greensburg, Kentucky, where Sgt. Dakota Meyer often spends time thinking about the dear friends he lost on the battlefield in Afghanistan. This deserving Medal of Honor recipient fought valiantly for peace, and with his honorable service complete, it's time for some in the national media to give it to him.

Note: This post was edited at 11:15 a.m. eastern.