Medal of Honor Recipient Dakota Meyer Gets Laughs on Letterman!

Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer is a hero. But he also is REALLY funny!

Enjoy this clip of his interview with David Letterman:

Meyer deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, in 2007 as a scout sniper with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines. He gained national attention for his actions in Afghanistan during his second deployment in Kunar Province with Embedded Training Team 2-8.

On September 8, 2009, near the village of Ganjgal, Meyer learned that three Marines and a Navy corpsman were missing after being ambushed by a group of insurgents. Under enemy fire, Meyer entered an area known to be inhabited by insurgents and eventually found the four missing servicemen dead and stripped of their weapons, body armor and radios. With the help of Afghan soldiers, he moved the bodies to a safer area where they could be extracted. During his search, Meyer “personally evacuated 12 friendly wounded and provided cover for another 24 Marines and soldiers to escape likely death at the hands of a numerically superior and determined foe.”

President Barack Obama and the audience applaud after Dakota Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor during a ceremony in the White House on September 15, 2011

On November 6, 2010, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Amos, told reporters during a visit to Camp Pendleton, California that a living Marine had been nominated for the Medal of Honor. Two days later, Marine Corps Times, an independent newspaper covering Marine Corps operations, reported that the unnamed individual was Meyer, citing anonymous sources. CNN confirmed the story independently two days later.

On June 9, 2011, the Marine Corps announced that two other Marines on Meyer’s team in Ganjgal would receive the Navy Cross, the second-highest award for valor a Marine can receive. Capt. Ademola D. Fabayo and Staff Sgt. Juan J. Rodriguez-Chavez were recognized for their roles in retrieving the bodies of the fallen Marines and corpsman. Before Meyer began searching for the missing servicemen on foot, Rodriguez-Chavez drove a gun truck into the kill zone with Fabayo manning the truck’s machine gun.

When President Barack Obama’s staff called Meyer to set up a time for the president to inform him that his case for the Medal of Honor had been approved, Meyer was working at his construction job and asked them to call again during his lunch break, which they did.

Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor in a ceremony on September 15, 2011. When a White House staffer contacted Meyer to arrange the ceremony, Meyer asked if he could have a beer with the president. He received an invitation to the White House for the afternoon before the ceremony. Meyer also requested that when he was honored, simultaneous commemorative services should be held at other associated locations to honor the memory of his colleagues who died or were mortally wounded during the ambush and his rescue attempts.

Four Americans died in the ambush: 1st Lt. Michael Johnson, 25, of Virginia Beach, VA; Staff Sgt. Aaron Kenefick, 30, of Roswell, GA; Gunnery Sgt. Edwin Wayne Johnson Jr., 31, of Columbus, GA; and Hospital Corpsman Third Class James R. Layton, 22, of Riverbank, CA. A fifth man, Army Sgt. 1st Class Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, of Shiprock, NM, later died from his wounds.