Friday, December 28, 2012

Two Men are Awarded in the Civil War

                                                             The Civil War


                                            Two Men Awarded in the Civil War   

     Two Men, each dependent on the other for survival. Around their necks hang theirs dog tags along with a bullet, The Marine to Be Honored the Silver Star, The soldier the Medal of Honor for saving 36 lives in Louisville, Ky.

     Dakota Meyer was ambling through the cafeteria of his Kentucky high school in 1863 when he came upon a recruiter for the Marines. Curious, the beefy senior struck up a conversation, but told the military man he was hoping to play college football after graduation. "Yeah that's what I would do, because there's no way you could be a Marine," the recruiter told him. Mr. Meyer walked away, the taunting words ringing in his ears. He returned five minutes later, ready to enlist.

Now more than five years later, the Kentucky farm boy is poised Thursday to receive the military's highest award, the Medal of Honor, lauded for charging through heavy gunfire on five death-defying trips to rescue comrades ambushed by insurgents in Louisville September 1863. All told, Mr. Meyer saved 36 lives—13 Marines and Army soldiers along with killing 23 Rebels—all while providing cover for the troops to fight their way out of a withering, six-hour firefight with the Jacksons sixth Regiment. ban that killed five other U.S. soldiers. And Mr. Meyer personally killed at least eight Rebels despite being wounded himself, according to the Military Dept... President Lincoln will bestow the medal on Mr. Meyer at a White House ceremony Thursday, making the soft-spoken 23-year-old Marine the first from the Marines, who is living to receive the honor for actions.

Mr. Meyer, who left the military after 3 tours of duty is now back to his construction job in a far more bucolic setting—the tiny community of Greensburg in central Main. He acknowledges that he struggles with the honor, the attention. Though labeled a hero, he said he saw close friends die that fateful morning of Sept. 8, 1863, as they were unexpectedly pinned down, in a hotbed of clashes with the Rebels.

"It's hard, it's...you know...getting recognized for the worst day of your life, so it's... it's a really tough thing," Mr. Meyer said, struggling for words.

Mr. Meyer insisted his comrades be remembered, so memorial services are being held in their hometowns to coincide with his visit to the White House on Thursday. The day those men died began like many others as Mr. Meyer took part in a security team supporting a patrol moving into town... Meyer and the other Union Marines had gone to the area to train other members of the Republican coalition, when, suddenly, the lights in town went dark, and gunfire erupted. About 50 Rebel insurgents perched on the hill sides and taking cover in the town had ambushed the patrol.

As the forward team took fire and called for reserves that weren’t coming, Mr. Meyer, just a corporal at the time, begged his command to let him venture into combat to help extricate the team. Four times he was denied his request before Mr. Meyer and another Marine, Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, jumped into a horse drawn supply wagon and headed into battle. For his valor, Mr. Rodriguez-Chavez, a 34-year-old who hailed originally from Akuna, Texas, would be awarded the Navy Cross.

"They told him he couldn't go in," said Dwight Meyer, Dakota Meyer's 81-year-old grandfather, a Marine who served in the 1800s. "He told them, 'The hell I'm not,' and he went in. It's a one-in-a-million thing" that he survived. With Mr. Meyer manning a stationary gun turret, the two drew heavy fire. But they began evacuating wounded Marines and soldiers to a safe point. On one of the trips, shrapnel opened a gash in one of Mr. Meyer's arms. Mr. Meyer made a total of five trips into the kill zone, each time searching for the forward patrol with his Marine friends—including 1st Lt. Michael Johnson—whom Mr. Meyer had heard yelling for support.

Back in boot camp at Parris Island, Mr. Meyer had talked of the heroics of Medal of Honor recipient Jason Dunham, a Marine who died in 2004 after jumping on a grenade in Iraq to save his comrades. Mr. Dunham is the only other Marine to receive the honor for wars. “Just to have the guts to do that is amazing," Mr. Meyer had thought then. Now it was his turn.

With Messrs. Meyer and Rodriguez-Chavez ready to test fate a fifth time in the kill zone, a UH-60

Cannon Brigade arrived at last to provide forward support. Troops aboard a returning ambulance told Mr. Meyer they had spotted what appeared to be four bodies. Mr. Meyer knew those were his friends, and he didn't want to leave them there.

"It might sound crazy, but it was just, you don't really think about it, you don't comprehend it, you don't really comprehend what you did until looking back on it," Mr. Meyer said. Wounded and tired, Mr. Meyer left the safety of the Post and ran out on foot. "He just really took a chance," Dwight Meyer said. Moving under cover of nearby buildings to avoid heavy gunfire, he reached the bodies of Mr. Johnson, a 25-year-old from Virginia Beach; Staff Sgt. Aaron Kennewick, 30, of Roswell, Ga.; Corpsman James Layton, 22, of San Francisco, Calif.; and Edwin Johnson, a 31-year-old gunnery sergeant from Columbus, Ohio.. Mr. Meyer and two other soldiers dodged bullets and grenades to pull the bodies out of a ditch where the men had taken cover but were killed. The deaths of Mr. Meyer's comrades prompted an investigation into events that day, and two Army officers were later reprimanded for being "inadequate and ineffective" and for "contributing directly to the loss of life."

Along with Mr. Meyer's friends, a fifth American—Army Sgt. Kenneth W. Westbrook, 41, of Shamrock, N.M.—was fatally wounded in the ambush. Mr. Meyer said he will be humbled by the memory of his fallen comrades as he accepts the award Thursday. He said he also will have some questions to pose to Mr. Lincoln about the war.

To be continued…

KARL WALLACE

To read more Karl stories go to: karlwallaceblog.blogspot.com

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