Videos contradict Medal of Honor recipient's account

Videos contradict Medal of Honor recipient's account
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
By Jonathan S. Landay
October 14, 2013

Video footage conflicts with accounts of events that led to Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer being awarded the nation's highest military decoration.

WASHINGTON — In his memoir of the 2009 battle in Afghanistan that brought him the Medal of Honor, Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer describes how he reflexively switched from his machine gun to his rifle and back to his machine gun as he mowed down a swarm of charging Taliban from the vehicle's turret.

"My mind was completely blank. I fired so many thousands of rounds I didn't think what I was doing," Meyer, then a corporal, wrote in his 2012 book, "Into the Fire: A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War."

But videos shot by Army medevac helicopter crewmen show no Taliban in that vicinity or anywhere else on the floor of the Ganjgal Valley at the time and location of the "swarm." The videos also conflict with the version of the incident in Marine Corps and White House accounts of how Meyer, now 25, of Columbia, Ky., came to be awarded the nation's highest military decoration for gallantry.

The videos add to the findings of an ongoing McClatchy investigation that determined that crucial parts of Meyer's memoir were untrue, unsubstantiated or exaggerated, as were the Marine Corps and White House accounts of how he helped extract casualties from the valley under fire. The White House and Marine Corps have defended the accuracy of their accounts of Meyer's actions. The Marine Corps declined to comment on the videos.

Army National Guard Sgt. Kevin Duerst, the helicopter crew chief whose helmet camera recorded one of the videos, confirmed the absence of insurgents on the valley floor as the aircraft flew in on a first run to retrieve casualties.
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